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DIARY 




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Parmaehenee Gaide. 






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DT^NIEI- E. HEVAa£OOD, 



A PARMACH0KK GUIDK 



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Cainp Caribou, Parmacheaee L(ake. 



OXPORD Co.. T^tKlNE, 



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BRISTOL, N. H. : 

PRINTED BY R. \V. MUSGROVE, 

189I. 






COI'YKItiHTED BY 

JOHN S. DANFORTH, 

All rirjhta renei-ced. 



DIAKY, 



In the fall of 1890, being in the employ of Mr. J. S. Dan- 
forth, manager of Parmachenee Club, as Trapper, Hunter 
and Guide, and having instructions from him to keep a 
Diar>' of my adventures, I made the following entries : — 

Rump Pond, Oct. iith. 
Came to Rump Pond to-day, from Camp Caribou, to do 
some trapping for beaver and rats. Went up stream after 
dinner, and set eleven traps for rats. Went over to Billings' 
Ponds, and walked all around them. Found five big roads 
where they are cutting and hauling wood for winter. I 
did n't see anything of the house, although there must be a 
large one somewhere. I saw a deer in the big meadows. I 
got so close to him before I saw him, and he run so fast, 
before I got my pistol out, that he got away. I 'fired four 
shots after him. Rained and blowed hard all day. 

October i2Th. 
Cold and windy^ but no rain to-day. I went up river 
and hauled my boat over the log jams — three of them, and 
poled up most to the Second East Branch, looking for more 
beaver signs ; saw none. Went out to Camp Caribou in 
afternoon after some more beaver traps. The fleas were aw- 
ful thick in this camp last night. I wonder where they came 



from, I never saw one here before. I suppose the cold 
weather drove them in from out doors. 

Camp Caribou, Oct. 13TH. 
Went over the Cupsuptic trail, four and one half miles, 
this morning ; then turned due east — traveled until I struck 
the " Suptic " river at the head of the Big Falls, here I 
found one of Billy Soules' canoes, — a little dandy. I put 
this in the river and paddled up stream as fast as I could 
one and one-half hours, which brought me to a camp built 
by Billy and myself. I found seven big traps here belong- 
ing to me, these I put in my canoe, and untied my lunch 
and ate it while I paddled down. The river is narrow and 
swift above the Big Falls, and I dragged over two flood jams 
and made one cut-off. I saw lots of deer tracks along the 
bank of the river, but no moose or beaver. I heard lots of 
partridges drumming to-day; quite an uncommon thing at 
this season of the year. The leaves are most all off, and I 
got home soon after dark. It was warm and sunny to-day. 

Rump Pond, Oct. 14TH. 
I came to Rump Pond to-da}' with mj- traps and some 
supplies. I poled a boat up the river over Rump Falls. I 
found it good practice for poling as well as a good test for 
the setting pole. It began with coarse gravel, broad and 
shallow, but finally it became more narrow, and big rocks 
with white water and ledges. I had to get out and lift the 
boat over just one place. I was two hours rowing up, from 
the time I laid down my paddle and took my setting-pole. 
I took both boats up to Billings' Ponds, dragged one over 
and put it in the pond to use on the beaver. I found their 
house, it is a big one, with lots of wood put in around it, 
mostl}^ maple, round wood and alders. I set one trap kind 
of easy. I didn't have much time to spare and no stones 



to fasten on the traps, so I left them till to-morrow. Got 
three rats last night and the nose of another. The sky has 
clouded over to-day, — been all day about it, — and I hear 
it raining outside now, so I guess it will rain enough to- 
morrow to wash out the tracks I make setting my traps. 

Rump Pond, Tuesday, Oct. 15TH. 
Very windy to-day with many showers. Rained hard all 
last night; raised the river about four inches. I got six 
rats this morning going up stream. I got six good rocks 
the first thing this morning, weighing about five pounds 
each, and put a strong wire around each of them for beaver 
traps; then went up to Billings' Ponds to tackle the beavers. 
I looked the place all over carefully, first; then set three 
traps — two by the house and one in a path. It is a very 
good place to catch them, the shores being steep and the 
water deep. There are lots of berries on the shores of the 
ponds — witherod, bog cranberries and huckleberries. I ate 
lots of the former ones, they being just ripened by the frost. 
I shall take up a dish to-morrow, and gather some of the 
bog cranberries for sauce. I may as well live kind of high 
while I can. A little later on, I shall have nothing but 
bread, and what I can shoot with my pistol, to eat. I 
found a partridge picking plums, too, and shot her. She 
fell to the ground and then run. I gave chase, and fired 
four more shots at her, finally hitting her in the head. It 
is nice and plump, and I will eat it for breakfast. I got 
another rat, on my way to camp, in a trap where I got one 
this morning, and got hold of a mink where I footed a rat 
yesterday. He got away, though he left it smelling very 
minky around the trap. I skinned my rats and made some 
stretchers for them. I surprised myself, after I got back to 
camp, by throwing up bottles and cans and shooting at 
them with my revolver, I found I could hit them almost 



every time. The sky has cleared to-night, and the stars 
are shining brightly, so I think to-morrow will be a fine 
da3". I must get out at day-break some morning and see if 
I can't get a deer. 

Rump Poxd, Wednesday, Oct. i6th. 
Warm and sunny all day to-day, looked hazy towards 
night. I went up to my traps in Billings' Ponds early this 
morning. Found one of them sprung — the biggest and 
best one — rather a bad beginning, but I think I will see 
the beaver that sprung that trap, to-morrow. Got one 
musk-rat this morning, no mink. Saw something at Wil- 
low Springs. Came near getting a shot at it, but it was a 
little too quick for me. I don't know whether it was an 
otter, mink or rat. It swam very fast for a rat, and it ran 
out in the woods twice while I saw it; but it looked like a 
rat. I cut out the trail to Billings' Pond and Caribou 
Pond, set one more beaver trap in a hole back of their 
house, and set an otter trap at Willow Springs. I gathered 
quite a lot of beaver wood, which I found floating around 
the ponds, for Danforth, to make a picture frame of. He 
wants one made of the natural beaver wood, cut and peeled 
all over b}' them. I found a 3'ellow birch tree about ten 
inches in diameter, cut and lodged by beavers. I am 
going to have that bj' and by, and I am going to get some 
of the chips the beavers make in cutting down trees, and 
make me a picture frame of them. I gathered a pint of 
bog cranberries while I was at the ponds, and have got 
them on stewing. I guess thej' will be a little skinny on 
account of the severe frosts. It is warm and dark to-night, 
and no wind, and I wish some one was here and I had my 
Jack. I would like to go floating for a deer. If I wake 
early enough to-morrow I will go out at day-break and tr}- 
for a shot. 



Rump Pond, Thursday, Oct. 17TH. 
Rained hard all da}' to-day without letting up a bit. I 
got a big beaver this morning, as big one as I ever caught, 
and I have caught some old " sockers." I took him by a 
fore leg and he went to the bottom and staid there. There 
was a piece gone out of his tail about the size of a silver 
dollar, probably bitten out by another beaver in a quarrel, 
or perhaps when he was small some old fellow bit that tail 
for a joke when he was asleep. I got three musk-rats on 
mj- way up stream this morning. I set an otter trap in 
Beaver Pond in the brook that runs from Caribou Pond. I 
skinned my beaver and rats and stretched them. The 
former I stretched on the wall of the camp. The mice 
bothered me last night about as bad as the fleas did the first 
night I stopped here. One kept running along a crack 
in the roof until I got mj- pistol and lay on the bunk 
with it trained on that crack about half an hour without 
seeing anything to pull it off at. Finalh' getting tired of 
that sort of fun, I bio wed out the light. No sooner was it 
dark than they got into my tin plate and fry-pan and began 
to scratch. I struck a match, and seeing a mouse sitting 
on the end of an upright stick of stove wood I fired, hitting 
the stick of wood at his feet. The mouse escaped under 
cover of the cloud of smoke that followed the report. I lay 
down once more and was nearly asleep when a little fellow 
to satisfy his curiosity began at my ankle to pace me off to 
see how long I really was. I stood this until he was near- 
ly to my collar, then made a clutch for him. Probably he 
was six feet away when I got there, however I missed him. 
I then got up, lit the lamp and made four dead-falls, bait- 
ing them with cheese, then crept carefully to bed so as not 
to jar my traps down, and this morning I had three set and 
baitless traps and one very flat piece of cheese. 



Rump Pond, Friday, Oct. i8th. 
Calm and cloudy all daj^ to-day. Rained a little in the 
afternoon. Went up to my traps this morning. Got two 
rats, but no mink or beaver. The beaver seem to be quiet 
now, no sign of their being out at all, that is usually the 
way, when one of their number is caught, for the first few 
days. It rained all last night and was warm, just the right 
kind of a night for them. I went up as far as the log jam 
this morning to see if I could see any signs of them to in- 
dicate their leaving the ponds for the river. Saw where 
something had climbed up the bank in an old beaver road. 
Either it was a beaver or otter. I shall set two beaver 
traps on the river to-morrow if I see any more signs. I got 
back to camp at noon and after a dinner on bread and pea 
soup (the usual fare) , I took the boat, axe and buck saw 
and went up stream to a good clump of white birches 
where I felled three of them and sawed them up stove 
length and loaded them in the boat. I got in a little more 
load than I intended. The boat was sunk to the gunwales, 
but I came down all right, and after splitting and putting 
it in the camp, which took till after dark, t skinned ray 
rats and had some more pea soup. I shot quite a lot at a 
target with old Long Tom, but I didn't hit very well. I 
tried the flying can practice again and could hit it everj^ 
time. Guess that is my best hold, yet it amounts to noth- 
ing as it is not much like shooting a deer on the jump or a 
bird on the wing. I picked up some more little sticks 
of beaver wood and cut oflf the beaver's head and put 
it on the stove in a kettle to boil so I can get the skull for 
a curiosity. I found one of them mice in mj^ water pail 
this morning, so I sha'n't have to waste any more car- 
tridges on him. It is dark and warm out doors to-night, 
and the river is quite high, too high to trap otter or mink. 



Saturday, Oct. iqth. 
Cloudy all day to-day, rained most of the time and a 
little colder than the last few days have been. This has 
been a great day for me, as enjoyable a da}' as I very 
often have. I got up into Rump Pond this morning about 
8 o'clock, and, while rowing slowly across the north end of 
the pond, I saw three deer come in at the south end of the 
pond, and start in single file along the edge of the water, 
towards the west shore, the same way I was going. I 
rowed quietly when they were going, and .stopped when 
they stopped to look around ; in this way I soon reached the 
shore, where, instead of trying to paddle on to them with 
the boat, and trust to their not knowing enough to take 
alarm and run, I landed, and, taking my rifle, got out and 
disappeared in the woods, where I could have a chance to 
work on to them my own wa5^ Luckily, the rain was fall- 
ing and the ground, leaves and sticks were wet and made 
no noise. Once I came out to take a look at them, to see 
where the}!- were, and, to my joy. they were working 
towards me. I got once more in the cover of the woods, 
and when I came out again, it was about one hundred 
5'ards from where they all three stood. It was a pretty 
sight, an old doe and two fawns all in the water, feeding, 
now walking out, then looking around, then going out in 
the pond further than ever. But I did not stop to study 
them long. I felt the buck ague taking hold of me the 
worst way, my heart beating like atrip-hammer. I picked 
out the biggest one and, aiming at her fore shoulder, fired. 
She fell in the water, then .sprung to her feet, and ran for 
the woods, and I saw a fore-leg was broken. Quickly 
throwing in another cartridge, I fired at her again, bringing 
her once more to the ground, then turning to a little one 
that was bounding over the grass for the woods, not more 
than fifteen yards from it, I fired and it fell dead and dis- 



lO 

appeared in the tall grass. I then began to fire on the 
third one, and fired till my magazine was empty, and I 
could see it standing in the edge of the woods. Laying 
down my rifle, I drew my revolver and fired every shot at 
that deer, and it standing there not over one hundred and 
twenty-five yards away, and did n't start until the last shot. 
While I was loading, the big one had once more got up, 
and, before I was ready, the two disappeared together in 
the woods. I did not disturb them, thinking if I did they 
might run half a mile before stopping; but I knew the big 
one would lay down not far oif if I kept away, so I went on 
up river, to my traps. I got, as usual, two rats but no 
beaver. Saw some more signs on the river, and set a trap 
there. I cut a hole in their dam that holds the pond up, 
and set a trap there. Now if they do n't show up very soon 
I shall tear a hole in their house and set a trap there and 
start them out, so I can get at them. When I came down 
I ran into Rump Pond to look for my deer. I found the 
little one, that fell in the grass, all right. It did n't seem 
to weigh any more than that beaver I caught last Wednes- 
day. I found the big one about one hundred and fifty 
yards in the woods, dead, one leg broken, and another shot 
had entered her body between the hind legs, and lodged 
near her spinal column. But the third little fellow was 
nowhere to be found. Well, I got enough of them; besides, 
the one that escaped was very small, and I want an old 
buck, with a neck as big as a five-gallon keg, for my third 
deer. I took them to camp in the boat, where I dressed 
them ofi" and cut their meat up in quarters and hung it up 
on a parallel bar, in front of the camp, to drain. The big 
one was shot to pieces so bad inside that I did not save the 
ribs. I skinned the little one's head out carefully, for set- 
ting up. I had a late dinner, 3.30 p. m., but had venison 
though, for the first time for a long-time. I cleaned my 



II 

beaver's skull and deer's skulls this evening, put my rifle 
and pistol in order, made a batch of bread and a kettle of 
pea-soup, and now, it being ii o'clock, I think I will turn 
in. I calculate to go out to Camp Caribou to-morrow 
with a load of meat. I don't suppose they have any out 
there. 

Camp Caribou, Oct. 20. 
The sun shone some to-day, for the first time since I 
started trapping. I went up to my traps this morning. 
Saw no signs of beaver. Went north from the Billings' 
Ponds, about one-fourth mile, and found another pond that 
I did not know of before. It is known as the Upper Bil- 
lings' Pond. It has a good brook running out of it, that 
enters the river at the log jam. I followed it down, and 
found two otter slides on it. I went down to the Lower 
Billings' Pond, and stopped the hole in the beaver dam, 
which was flowing the trail to the pond pretty bad, and 
took the trap I had there, and the one at Willow Springs, 
and poled up to the log jam, and set them both for otter. 
Then came down to camp, and got a mink on my way 
down. I hit him on the head with the ax handle, and, 
thinking him dead, reached out to take him up, when he 
bit me through the thumb. It is needless to say that I put 
force enough into the next blow to kill any animal smaller 
than a bear. I had a hasty dinner, and packed three hind 
quarters of venison, with the little hide and beaver skull, 
etc., in my knapsack, and started for Camp Caribou. 
Reached camp as they were eating supper. Shot two par- 
tridges on my way out. I found everything all right at 
Parmachenee. The meat I carried out was very acceptable. 

Rump Pond, Tuesday, Oct. 21. 
I got some more small traps this morning and came back 



to Rump Pond. Set five mink traps at Little Boys' Falls 
for Charley Robarge, on my way up. Set up a line of six 
sable traps, on my way in, between Rump Pond and Little 
Boys' Falls. Went up river to all my traps; got three 
rats, that was all. A little bear got in one of ni}- mink 
traps last night. It was baited with rats. The trap was a 
little No. 2 Clipper, and it didn't get a good hold of his 
foot, so he left it drove into the mud, the clog doubled up 
and stuck into the bank, where it was tied. I shall set one 
or two dead-falls, to-morrow, for bear. When I reached 
camp I found it lighted up and a fire burning, and on 
entering, found two French fellows there, on their way to 
Canada. I filled the big fry-pan full of venison, and made 
a whole baker' s-sheet full of bread, with pea soup and tea. 
We had a good, jovial supper. They could speak good 
English, and we talked till late. 

Rump Pond, Oct. 22. 
Clear and frost}^ this morning. The logans and dead 
water was frozen over, and the frost was quite thick on the 
boat and logs. I set them Frenchmen across the river, 
and the}- .started for Canada. I went up to my traps. Got 
three rats, no mink or beaver. I set a log trap between 
Billings' Pond and the river, for a bear, and baited it with 
a portion of the beaver's carcass. I piled enough logs on 
the drop-log to break an ox's back. It sets light enough 
so the weight of a small bear's paw will spring it. I then 
set a small trap near by, with a spring-pole attached to it, 
for a fisher. I didn't tear open the beaver house in Bil- 
lings' Pond, as I intended to have done on this visit to the 
traps, as Danforth advised me not to. I came up to 
Rump Pond with boat, after I reached camp, and got a 
load of dry wood and some boards to fix the camp with. 
After supper I skinned out a beaver's hind foot, which is 



13 

quite a job, as it is webbed like a duck's, and to separate 
the two skins, without cutting either, is rather a difficult 
thing to do. I thought it would be an odd-enough-looking 
tobacco pouch or purse. 

Camp Caribou, Oct. 23. 
Clear and frosty, as usual, this morning. Charley 
Robarge came early this morning, to see me before I start- 
ed off to my traps. He came just as I went to the door 
for the first time this morning. Danforth sent him to tell 
me to come to Camp Caribou, and go with him to Cupsup- 
tic Pond, to-morrow, to set traps. Charley and I had 
breakfast together, and then went up to my traps. Got 
three rats. Set a trap for beaver, where they have been 
working the last two nights, on the river a short distance 
above the big meadows. No signs of beaver in Billings' 
Pond, yet I am sure there are at least two big ones in the 
house, there. We had dinner at Rump Pond, and after 
fixing the camp up inside and packing our knapsacks with 
the deer meat, fur, etc., came out to Camp Caribou. Got 
here in good season. Packed up most of my provisions to 
go to Cupsuptic, to-morrow. The sky has clouded over 
to-night, and the wind blows from the south, which indi- 
cates snow or rain. 

Cupsuptic Pond Camp, Friday, Oct. 24TH. 
Cool and cloudy to-day. I packed my knapsack this 
morning and took some rats' carcasses for bait and came 
over to Cupsuptic Pond, setting up the sable traps as I 
came along. I got one rat in Beaver Pond as I came along, 
out of Alec Robarge 's traps. I saw some moose tracks 
nearly all the way on the trail and some down on the shore 
of the pond. I found the camp very cold, the moss having 
blown out of the cracks, leaving it open as a barn. I did n't 



14 

have time to-night to calk it, as I cut a good lot of wood 
and fixed my revolver, which had got in a habit of miss- 
ing fire. I found five good beaver traps here in camp, and 
] am going down river in the morning with them to see if 
there are any beaver there this fall. I got five there last fall. 
I saw a stick here on the shore of the pond that has been 
peeled by beavers lately, so there must be one down there 
somewhere. The pond is mostly frozen over and the 
ground here is quite hard and I shouldn't be surprised if 
we had some snow to-night over here. It is always much 
colder here than over to Parmachenee. 

CupsuPTic Pond, Saturday, Oct. 25TH. 
Quite warm and sunny here to-day, although the ice in 
the pond and logans didn't thaw much. I went down the 
" Suptic " stream looking for beaver. Went all around 
where there were plenty of them last fall, but didn't see 
signs of one. I saw lots of moose tracks and caribou 
tracks all the way down the stream. I saw one bear's 
track on the shore of the pond. The tracks I saw were 
mostly fresh, many made wnthin two or three days, and I 
made a bark-horn and tried to get an answer out of a 
moose, but did not succeed. If I had some one with me, or 
even a rifle, I would go down on the bog and call a while. 
I brought up a bear trap that was down the stream hang- 
ing on a tree, and set it for a bear, as I was on the trail to 
Arnold's Bog. 1 baited it with some meat I found in the 
spring that was hurt. I saw lots of caribou tracks on the 
trail this side of, and at, Arnold's Bog ; they were very 
plenty. But on reaching the bog I was disgusted at find- 
ing that a dam which was built at the foot of the bog had 
taken effect and filled the stream full and flowed the bog in 
many places. I couldn't go anywhere I wanted to, and 
came back earlv and gathered some moss and calked the 



15 

camp until after dark. Oh, for a little snow, and what fun 
I would have with these caribou and moose ! I lost my 
bowie-knife while building the cubby for my bear trap, but 
was fortunate enough to find it again. I hope there will 
not be any very cold weather while I am at this camp, for 
I fear it will be very cold even after I have done all I can 
with moss and calking-iron. I expect to go to Arnold's 
Bog to-morrow and take up the sable traps back to Lap- 
water and set them on the new trail down to this pond and 
go to White Cap, taking up the traps from the bog there as 
I go along, also look the bog stream over for beaver. I 
shall approach Deniston's Bog very cautiously as it is a 
great place for caribou. 

White Cap Camp, Sunday, Oct. 26th. 
Warm and sunny all day to-day. I went over to Ar- 
nold's Bog this morning and took up the sable traps up to 
Lapwater on the old trail and set five of them on the new 
one down to Cupsuptic Camp. Saw three partridges and 
missed them a few times on account of my tinkering with 
my revolver last night, but when I got the hang of it I laid 
two of them out with a vengeance. It shoots harder than it 
did before I set the barrel up closer to the cylinder. I got 
to Camp Cupsuptic and got dinner and left as quick as I 
could with what bait I had. I followed the bog stream up 
about a mile and then left it and struck for the old White 
Cap trail and took up the traps as I went along, as we are 
going to abandon that line. Where I hit the bog stream I 
found a beaver dam and signs of at least one beaver there. 
There may be more below there, but no more above. 1 
will look them up and set some traps next Tuesda5^ I saw 
both caribou and moose tracks on Deniston's Bog and 
vicinity, none very fresh though. I went to White Cap 
Pond just at dusk, but did not see any game. Set three 



i6 

traps between camp and pond. I brought over some flour, 
butter and tea from Cupsuptic, but there was no need of it 
as I found plenty of everything here. It seems nice to get 
back into the White Cap country again where there is a 
promise of some big game, 5'et there is something about 
the deserted beaver dams where I caught beaver last fall, 
the abandoned White Cap trail and the damming up of Ar- 
nold's Bog, that makes me feel about as the Indians used 
to when they watched the white men falling trees for a long 
time and then turned away saying, " White man much fall 
trees, much trees much bear, much moose ; no tree no 
bear, no moose ; Injun starv'e ; ugh !" 

Camp Cupsuptic, Monday, Oct. 27TH. 
The sun rose clear this morning, but clouded in about 
8.30 A. M., and a little snow fell on Panther Mountain as I 
was going over and setting up the ox-bow line of sable 
traps. It was a very fine snow, which represented fine 
hair cut up. I started early this morning, knowing I had 
a hard da3''s work before me. I shot three partridges 
before I got to Eastman's Drizzle, which was all I saw for 
the day. I saw a little owl, the third one of the kind I ever 
saw, and the only one I ever saw that was not in a barn. 
I believe the specie is called the barn or screech-owl. He 
was very tame, and I put some meat on a long stick and 
tried to feed him, but he would not eat it. He was about 
the color of a cat-owl, only had white spots on its wings. 
Its body could not have been larger than a swallow's or at 
largest, a snow-bird's. I saw a bear's track in the mud at 
the first crossing of the Arnold's River, and caribou tracks 
in several places, especially at Eastman's Drizzle. I reached 
the foot of Arnold's Bog at 4.20 p. m., and, knowing that 
I had no time to lose, I made the best speed I could along 
the west side of the bog. Hittins: the trail between here 



17 

and the bog, arrived at camp in time to stop up some holes 
with moss, before dark. I guess I shall have the camp 
quite warm by the time I get ready to leave. I looked the 
dam over a little as I crossed on it. It has two gates and 
both are down. It is calculated to hold ten feet of water, 
when the gates are down, and two feet when they are up. 
I was in hopes to find the bog still unfrozen, so I could 
come down with the boat, but it was not, so I had to climb 
windfalls for it. I ate a partridge for supper, and found it 
very good, although it is the most unpalatable meat, for me, 
that I have. I saw one rabbit, the first one I have seen 
this fall, and I shot him, because I wanted some meat. 
The wind is blowing quite hard to-night, and a fine snow 
falling. There is about one-fourth inch already, and it 
is cold enough .so it does not melt, and I am in hopes 
there will be enough before morning, to track a deer or 
caribou; if such is the case, I shall have to tr^^ them a 
chase, in the morning, after I set some beaver traps on the 
Bog Stream. I didn't have any blankets last night, and 
the fire-wood was dry fir, and only lasted about half an 
hour, at a single filling up of the stove, so I did not get 
much sleep. But I have more blankets at this camp than 
I ever use, so I will sleep up a good lot ahead to-night for 
fear I camp on a track to-morrow night. I picked up a 
novel over to White Cap last night, entitled, "The Silent 
Rifle", and brought it with me to read. I have read about 
half of it to-night, and have come to the conclusion that I 
could write a more sensible lie myself. I know I could 
write a more reasonable one. For example, read diary of 
Daniel E. Hey wood, fall and winter of 1890 and 1891. 

Camp Cupsuptic, Tuesday, Oct. 28. 
Cloudy all day, to-day, except about five minutes about 
ten o'clock, A. m., when the sun came out brightly, but 



i8 

soon disappeared. Snowed last night about three-fourths 
inches, a fine, sandy snow. The weather was cold enough, 
to-day, so the snow did not melt any, yet it was too warm to 
freeze anything. I started out, this morning, to set my 
beaver traps, with the intention of going still-hunting after 
the traps were set ; but, finding a fresh caribou track before 
I was hardly off the bog, I hung up my knapsack and set 
my ax against a tree, and drew my revolver, to give that 
caribou a try. In less than ten minutes after I started on 
the trail I came in sight of it, standing under a big spruce, 
about sixty yards away. I took a careful aim, and fired. 
I saw a little fir-tree, exactly in range and near the caribou, 
quiver as I fired, and, as the game did not move, I knew 
that little bush had turned the bullet, which had missed 
its mark. The second shot cut that same tree short off and 
broke one hind leg, high up, which caused the caribou to 
fall to the ground, and, b}- the time it could regain its feet, 
I had run to within a few yards of it, and shot it through 
the heart. It was a medium-sized cow. I dragged it to 
the carry to my bear trap, and there left it and went and 
set four beaver traps. I found the stream dammed by bea- 
ver for quite a distance, some eight or ten dams in all. 
Probably two beaver are there. I cut holes in the dams, 
and set my traps beside them. I did not see anymore cari- 
bou tracks or deer, either. When I got my traps set I 
came back to my caribou, and dressed it off and brought 
the meat to camp. It was so late, then, that I thought 
I had better cut wood and wash my camp dishes. I cut 
wood till dark, and got a good pile. I skinned out my cari- 
bou's head, as it was my first one and had horns about five 
inches long. I want to get a collection of heads with that 
pistol. I think I will go to my traps in the morning, and 
then strike for White Cap to see if I can get another cari- 
bou around Deniston's Bog. I want to get a beaver to 



19 

take home with me, so I shall stay a day or two longer. I 
do n't think there is enough snow out to Parmachenee to 
amount to anything still-hunting. I wish, very much, that 
I had my rifle here. I can hit all right with my revolver, 
but it has not the smash and tear that a gun ought to have 
for big game. I filled and lighted my pipe when I left camp 
this morning, and when I killed the caribou it was still 
going. The snow has fallen a little most all day, and there 
is over an inch of it now ; but it seems a little warmer 
to-night, and the snowing has stopped, so to-morrow may 
be my last day's hunt on this snow. 

Camp Cupsuptic, Wednesday, Oct. 29. 
The sun rose clear this morning, and it was warm all 
day. The trees dripped in the forenoon. 1 first went to 
my beaver traps, which I found setting all right. I saw 
the track of one small beaver on the bank in two places. 
That may be all there is in the family. After I saw my 
traps I found the trail that leads to White Cap, which E.I. 
Herrick spotted, and partly bushed out, last summer, and 
with a blanket for the camp, and my dinner and axe, I 
went over to White Cap Camp, in the hopes of finding 
some fresh signs of something larger than deer. I crossed 
five deer tracks, some sable tracks, saw two partridges, 
but no moose, caribou or bear. I had a caribou's tongue 
boiled for my dinner, with toasted bread. I believe that 
tongue was the sweetest meat I ever ate. After dinner I went 
over to the pond, and then returned to this camp on the same 
trail I went over on, hoping that a deer had crossed it since 
I went over ; but there had not, so I cut some grass from 
the river bank, and picked some caribou moss, and finished 
calking the camp. It is warm enough now. I found a 
pair of Canada jays at work on my piazza helping them- 
selves to mj' meat, and I sent one of them under a pile of 



20 

brush, with a broken wing; the other "skun out." I heard 
a shot to-day, in the direction of Parmachenee. Perhaps 
there is some snow over there, and they are out still-hunting ; 
if such is the case, I ought to be there. It has been cloudy 
all the afternoon, and has snowed some, and is snowing to- 
night ; but it is a damp snow here, and must be nearly, if 
not quite, rain at Parmachenee. So I think I will go to 
my traps as early as possible to-morrow, and then put in 
the remainder of the day hunting deer. ] will not waste 
any more time looking for caribou, etc., but will go out and 
just polish off an old buck with a pistol. 

Camp Cupsuptic, Thursday, Oct. 30TH, 
Cloudy and warm all day, to-day. Snowed a little most 
of the time to-day. Snowed about two inches last night. 
I arose before daylight this morning, and had an early 
start after deer. I went up to Lapwater, about two miles 
west of here, and then left the trail, and struck south, onto 
a big, hard-wood hill. Here 1 soon struck a deer's track, 
and, after following him up the side of the mountain, one 
and one-half hours, I started him, on top of the mountain. 
He ran a little way and stopped, and circled around. I 
tried many waj^s to get sight of him, but the damp snow 
and the gusts of wind from every quarter, prevented me 
from getting sight of him. The snow packed under my 
feet much worse than I had an idea it would. At last I got 
tired of playing with that deer, and turned to go east, and 
hit the river, and follow it up to camp. But I soon came 
to a verj' large buck's track, going the same way I was, so 
I follow^ed him. He led me through as bad traveling as 
I ever went through. I followed him across the river, and 
about one-half mile into an old wind-fall, thick with rasp- 
berry bushes and little scrub firs; and then, as he had not 
found a place mean enough for him to stop in, I gave him 



21 

up, and came to camp. Arrived at 1.30 p. m., hoping that 
deer has got there by this time. If old Long Tom had 
vomited on him, his head would be skinned out by this time. 
I went to my traps on the Bog Stream this afternoon. Saw 
no signs of beaver. Guess he has gone down into the bog. 
I got some of the caribous' dressings, for bait to-morrow, as 
I have determined to go over that line of traps, before going 
to Camp Caribou ; I mean the Ox-bow line. 

White Cap Camp, Friday, Oct. 31ST. 
Snowed one-half inch last night; froze some, but the sun 
rose clear and warm this morning. I started for White 
Cap by way of Ox-bow, as soon as daylight appeared. I 
was two and a half hours crawling through the w^hite 
maples and dry kie around Arnold's Bog, which was the 
hardest part of the trip, unless I except climbing onto 
Panther Mountain at the north end. I met two men, at the 
dam, as I was eating a lunch there. They were from Megan- 
tic, and had come to inspect the dam. I saw a rabbit and a 
large flock of robins to-day. The rabbit was still grey, and 
the robins, too, make me think we are going to have an 
open fall. I saw where a small bear crossed my line twice.. 
The tracks were very dim, so 1 did n't attempt to follow 
him. I may find them to-morrow, fresher. I saw several 
deer tracks, but no caribous'. Got five sable, rather better 
than I expected. The reason I didn't go home to-day is 
because I didn't w^ant to go without any fur. I shall, no 
doubt, get two or three sable to-morrow, to take home with 
me. The traveling was ver>^ hard to-day. The snow was 
nearly a foot in depth on Panther Mountain. The trees 
were ver>' pretty on the nor' west side. The frost was two 
inches thick, and represented ferns, etc. , as frost always does. 
It bothered me considerable, on account of covering the 
spots, and I was obliged to look behind me frequently, to 



22 

see the side of the trees, that were clear from snow. I got 
here in time to cut some wood before dark. I was very 
tired and hungry. Skinned my sable and a weasel, of 
which I caught two, but am not going to stretch them till 
I get to Parmacheene. 

Camp Caribou, Nov. ist. 
I came over to Cupsuptic from White Cap this morning, 
where I found Danforth, Joe Robarge and Clark Hill. 
Nobody was at the camp when I arrived, but Danforth soon 
came, and later, Joe came too. Joe had been out hunting, 
and fired four shots at three deer, missing them all. It 
was decided that he was to come to Parmachenee with me. 
Accordingly, we started with some meat, and the caribou's 
hide and got here at 4 o'clock. We made some prepara- 
tions to go to Black Pond to-morrow to carry a load of 
provisions to a party in there, and some for ourselves, so 
we can stay and hunt or cut carries, accordingly as the 
weather may be. Snowed this forenoon, a damp snow, but 
there was hardly any snow at Parmachenee. 

Camp Caribou, Sunday, Nov. 2nd. 
Warm and snowy to-day. We all three went still-hunt- 
ing all day. Charley and I went over towards I^ittle Magal- 
loway. I jumped four deer, but did not see any of them. 
Shot a sable, tore quite a large hole in his hide. I forgot 
to take any dinner with me, so I came in at 3 p. m. and 
stretched my sable and put up our stuff" to go to Black 
Pond to-morrow. It is raining to-night, and I guess Joe 
and I shall have a wet trip to-morrow. 

BivACK Pond, Nov. 3rd. 
Joe and I came here to-day. It rained and snowed in 
the forenoon, and we got quite wet, but in the afternoon it 



23 

was colder, and snowed an inch. We got in at 3 p. m. 
Found Alec Robarge and Mr. Clarke at the camp. They 
had not killed anything, although Alec had seen several 
deer. Joe and I saw one partridge and a rabbit. Crossed 
several deer tracks. I am somewhat afraid it will be cold 
to-night, and be crusty to-morrow. However, I calculate 
some of us will kill a deer to-morrow. I haven't got any 
rifle, but I have got old IvOng Tom, and about eighty car- 
tridges. I made a good pea-soup to-night, for breakfast, 
but it looks so good, I think I shall have to have some of 
it to-night. 

Black Pond, Tuesday, Nov. 4TH. 
Snowed a little last night, and some to-day. Warm 
enough, yet not enough so to make the snow damp. We 
all four of us hunted all day. I found one big deer and 
jumped him, but did not get a shot. None of us got a sight 
of one to-day. I took a long tramp, did not see any tracks 
in the afternoon. Danforth and Clark Hill arrived from 
Cupsuptic about noon. They run a line through this fore- 
noon. Clark shot one small deer, and snapped again at a 
very large buck. His rifle missed fire and he lost him. It 
was nice still-hunting to-day. We all met here to-night, 
and told our stories, and cracked our jokes, and laid our 
plans for to-morrow. 

Upper Bi,ack Pond, Wednesday, Nov. 5TH. 
Warm and sunny all day, to-day. Snow was damp in 
afternoon, and wind blew. Very good still-hunting in p. m. 
I left Lower Black Pond early this morning, and came over 
to the Branch Camp without seeing any fresh deer tracks, 
but after crossing the branch, I saw plenty of tracks along 
the left side of the stream, in the windfalls and alders. I 
kept along the edge of the swamp, watching for a track of 



24 

one coming out, and soon saw a deer jump under cover of 
the bushes, too quick for any kind of a shot. I went up 
the Barker's L,ake trail, about one-half a mile, and struck 
across to here, where I ate my lunch at ii o'clock; then 
started again, and went around the pond, across the Bark- 
er's Lake trail, and most down to M. I. Abby Pond, 
without seeing any fresh tracks, and ver}- few old ones ; then 
I turned south, down along the branch, to near the camp. 
I struck the Upper Black Pond trail, where it joins the 
Barker's Ivake trail, and came up it, to near the height of 
land, where I came to a very large deer's track, going 
with the wind. I followed it a short distance, with a 
strong wind at ni)^ back, and he got the scent of me and 
ran, without my seeing him. Then I came all the way to 
camp without seeing an)' more tracks. I cut some wood, 
although I found plenty, and had a good supper. I trav- 
eled ver}^ fast to-day. It has been a perfect afternoon for 
getting deer, but they are not verj^ plenty. When they lie 
down, they always find a place where a hunter has no 
possible chance of seeing them, and when it is crusty on the 
south side they all go there. They verj' seldom go near the 
nice, hard-wood hills, except to pass over from one swamp 
to another, and travel so fast, when going over, that a 
hunter can't overtake them. In fact, they are better 
educated here than is good for the country, and I am going 
to Rump Pond to-morrow to attend to my traps, and let 
the still-hunting go to grass; and if I still-hunt an}' more 
it will be where there are some deer, and have not had their 
ears perforated with buck-shot. 

Rump Pond, Thursday, Nov. 6th. 
Warm as summer, and sunny all day. I left Upper 
Black Pond early this morning and went down to Lower 
Black. I tried one deer on the way, but jumped and lost 



25 

him. I met Clark before I got to Lower Black, and we 
both came back together. I got a lunch and started for 
Rump Pond. I came down the usual route until I reached 
the Beaver Pond on the First East Branch, then took 
Beraus' tote road across to the Canada tote road, which I 
struck near Beraus' old camps. I found it very good travel- 
ing, much better than I anticipated. I crossed one good 
sized bear's track, and many deer tracks. The tote road 
lead me through a great deal of as bad dry kie on both sides, 
but I passed over as pretty a ridge as I ever saw, an excel- 
lent place to hunt. I was three hours and thirty minutes 
from camp to camp. I reached camp to find a smoke com- 
ing from the funnel and in answer to my call, Mr. Lewis 
came across the river and got me. Lewis and Fred Cobbs 
were at this camp. We got to shooting our pistols and 
rifles, of which we had one apiece. We broke every 
empty bottle and punched every can we could find. We 
played match-anty till quite late, and then retired to dream 
of shooting deer. 

Rump Pond, Friday, Nov. 7TH. 
Warm this morning ; did not freeze last night. Lewis 
went out to Camp Caribou after a load of provisions, and 
Fred and I went up river to my traps. I found Rump Pond 
and Beraus' frozen over, and some ice in the eddies, but it 
was all melting very fast. T found every trap had been 
visited by bears, as I passed up stream. I lost one mink, 
one rat, one squirrel and the bait from everj^ trap, 
by them. I laughed at all that and remarked that I 
" hoped they liked beaver also," as I had my dead-fall at 
Billings' Pond baited with beaver. On reaching Billings' 
Pond, I approached the dead-fall carefully, having seen 
bear tracks around every trap below there, and when I got 
where I could see it, I thought it was sprung, but not will- 



26 

ing to believe m}^ e3^es, I held my breath till I got where I 
could look behind it, and then I threw down my hat and 
fairly howled with delight, as I saw a nice, fat bear with 
his neck betwen the drop-log and the bed-piece. He 
weighed about one hundred pounds, and appeared to have 
been killed instantly when the log struck him. Billings' 
Pond was frozen over, so we went around to the beaver 
traps, where we got one small beaver. Then as there was 
no more use for a boat there, we hauled it back into the 
river, and I paddled it down. I located another place for a 
bear trap, and then returned to camp. lycwis arrived soon 
after we did, with a partridge, and after dinner we all went 
up and built another bear trap near the outlet of Long Pond. 
The boys took hold and helped me and we accomplished 
the task in one hour and thirty minutes, and baited it with 
beaver. Then we returned to camp, which we reached about 
dark. I shall set another dead- fall between the river and 
Caribou Pond to-morrow, as I have seen two or three sizes 
of bear tracks, and I think I can catch another bear. The 
bear that I got was a male one. He came into the carry 
and went to the boat, and got into it ; smelt around, thought 
he smelt beaver and then went straight to the trap. The 
beaver I got was in the same trap as the other one was, 
but he was the smallest one I ever got, weighing about 
thirty pounds. I had more fun with that bear than I could 
have had with three bears if I had been alone. That is the 
only trouble with my hunting, there is always things taking 
place that are too good to have alone. I did not skin either 
of them to-night, as the}' are hard to skin and I want day- 
light for it. Fred saw a fox at the outlet of Rump Pond, 
but was too quick for him to get a shot at him. 

Camp Caribou, Saturday, Nov. 8th. 
Wild and windy to-day ; rained hard this forenoon. 



27 

Charley Robarge came early this inoniiiig, while I was 
skinning the beaver, to have me come home to guide a man. 
He helped me skin the beaver and bear, and had dinner 
with us. We got about two gallons of oil off the bear ; he 
was ver\' fat. I cut off his head for hi.i skull and teeth, 
which were a very line set. I gave the boys some of the oil, 
as they helped me set the trap and make another. After 
dinner Charley and I went up to the Caribou Pond carry 
with the last beaver for bait, and went in to the first ridge 
and set another bear trap ; we set a good one, one that will 
last three years. I saw tracks of bears enough to make me 
think I shall get one more, larger than this one. Then 
Charley and I came home as quick as we could with the 
hides and beaver- wood. Got to the camps soon after dark. 
Found Danforth at home. The day I left Upper Black 
Pond he shot a nice buck with his 44 Smith & Wesson 
revolver, and Joe shot another with a rifle. Danforth 
thinks he will have that bear-skin tanned for a floor mat. 

CuPSUPTic Pond, Sunday, Nov. qth. 
Warm and considerable rain and hail. I came over here 
to Cupsuptic with a load of kerosene and peas and a cake 
of maple sugar. I met E. I. Herrick and Joe on the trail 
going to Parmachenee. About an inch of hail fell over 
here this afternoon and then rained. I went over to my 
beaver traps on the Bog Stream ; found one trap sprung ; 
took up one of them and returned to camp, and went up to 
the beaver- works on the brook that runs by this camp, the 
one that Danforth found ; it is a nice dam. Danforth seta 
trap there, but I could not find it, as it was getting dark, 
and I didn't know just where it was ; perhaps a beaver is 
in it ; however, I set the one I took up on the Bog Stream and 
returned to camp wet and hungry. The bushes are covered 
with sleet. I found Alec and Mr. Clarke here. The> 



28 

saw a big deer yesterday, but did not get a shot at him. 

White Cap, Monday, Nov. ioth. 
Left Cupsuptic Camp at eight o'clock a. m. Went 
around Arnold's Bog, on the east side ; found it better 
traveling than on the west side. I took up the traps on the 
Ox-bow line, and brought them in in my knapsack ; there 
was thirty of them. I only had one sable and a partridge 
in them. I didn't cross any fresh tracks at all, but I saw 
lots of deer tracks made last night and yesterday and some 
very large caribou tracks, on the north end of Panther 
Mountain, some three or four days old. There was about 
one foot of snow on Panther, with a hard crust on top of it, 
which hurt my ankles, but the most of the way it was quite 
good. On arriving at camp I found Alec and Mr. Clarke 
had been here to-day and taken dinner, leaving me a kettle 
of pea-soup, which I was not long in getting away with. 
The gentleman that I expected to guide went to Black 
Pond where Clarke Hill was, and Clarke is guiding him. 
I am going back to Parmachenee to-morrow, as I expect to 
be called on to guide Mr. Deniston soon. I cut some wood 
to-night; some of it was green fir, and it do'n't burn worth 
a cent. 

Camp Cupsuptic, Tuesday, Nov. iith. 
Clear and cold last night and this morning. I left White 
Cap this morning for Cupsuptic, with fort}^ traps in my 
knapsack. Saw two deer, a doe and fawn. It was so 
crusty I was not looking for them, and did not see them till 
I heard the big one whistle and jump in the crust. I got a 
quick shot at ^the small one as he was fast disappearing, but 
did not hit him. I followed them about two hundred yards 
and saw them again, and fired three shots, but the distance 
and thick trees and their jumping around prevented my 



29 

getting any aim. I reached camp to find Joe here prepar- 
ing dinner. After dinner I cut on the Black Pond trail and 
he chopped wood at the camp. Alec and Mr. Clarke are 
gone to Camp Caribou ; they left this morning. They left 
a fox hide hanging in the camp, shot most in two, and 
minus its tail. 

Camp "Suptic," Wednesday, Nov. i2Th. 
Clear and cold this morning. Joe and I went on the 
Black Pond trail to-day. Clarke Hill and Mr. Brewster 
came down from Black Pond and got dinner at this camp, 
and then returned. I had just tobacco enough, by being 
temperate, to last me to Parmachenee, but they filled their 
pipes, which left me about one-half pipe full for to-night 
and to-morrow ; rather a good joke, I think, as I asked 
them very eagerly if they had any tobacco to spare, that I 
was most out. We found it quite slow cutting to-day and 
only got about one mile, but we got over the worst of this 
end of the trail . I went down to the beaver dam on the stream 
above the camp, and walked around on the ice on the pond, 
it being frozen thick enough for that. They do n't seem to 
want to come down to the dam where the traps are. I 
should like to make an opening in the dam and set a trap 
in it ; but guess 1 won't till I see Danforth, as he found it 
and set the first trap. Cold and clear to-night. Going 
home in the morning. 

Camp Caribou, Thursday, Nov. 13TH. 
Cloudy and cold this morning until about two o'clock 
p. M., when the clouds broke away, and the sun came out 
warm. Joe and I left Cupsuptic with a load each of meat, 
hides, beaver- wood, etc. We found the traveling ver^- 
slippery on account of the late rain and hail. On arriving 
at Beaver Pond we made a shelter for the boat and put it 



30 

under it. Had our lunch at the camp and then came on to 
the lake, which we found partly frozen, but had no trouble 
in getting to the island. We found ever3-body and every- 
thing all right. The falls at the foot of the lake roar loud 
to-night, and the sky looks like a storm. Now for four or 
five inches of dry, fine snow, and woe to the deer that we 
get track of — down they will go and drive a horn into the 
ground clear to their head in the fall. I expect that Joe 
and I will go to Beaver Pond to-morrow to hunt and trap. 

At The Farm Camp, Nov. 14TH, 1890. 
Joe and I came over to-da)' to cut wood and repair the 
camp, until the snow is proper to go still-hunting. Dan- 
forth came over with us and gave us some directions about 
the work. We cut some wood and put up some shelves in 
the camp, and cleaned it up. The stove bothered us about an 
hour before we could get smoke through the funnel ; by that 
time, with the aid of two extra joints on the funnel, we got 
a hole melted around a junk of snow and ice that had set- 
tled in the knee, and after that it drawed first-rate. We 
had to break some ice this morning in leaving the island, 
but it has been warm and pleasant all day. The clouds 
roll over and look like summer, but the air is so dead that 
I think we shall have a storm soon, j'et it may be snow. 
I made a mouse-trap this evening — a dead-fall. I made the 
cubby drop-log and every part just the same as I make a 
bear trap. I made it on a piece of board, locking the cor- 
ners and staking it down fast, so every piece is solid to the 
board, and I set it and caught four mice in it. They looked 
just like the bear I caught at Billings' Pond, only on a 
smaller scale. 

Farm Camp, Saturday, Nov. 15TH. 
Had a white frost last night. Joe and I sawed wood all 



31 

day ; got a good pile, two or three cords. We split and 
piled about one cord into the camp, enough to last three 
weeks; the rest we put in the boat-house. Clarke Hill and 
Mr. Brewster came home last night. Joe and I put in a 
boat and went and got them, and set them across to Camp 
Caribou. I suppose the}^ went to Magallowa}' settlement 
to-day. The sky clouded up this afternoon, and just before 
dark it began to snow a fine, damp snow, and there is three 
inches of it now ; so to-morrow must be a good day for still- 
hunting, and Joe and I must get a good, early start and see 
if we can't get a deer. I made a cake-board this evening 
and put some panels in the door of the camp, which were 
out. Joe is not feeling very well to-night and may not do 
much to-morrow, but I don't intend that "Johnny" shall 
find me sleeping, if he comes over 'this wa}^ to hunt 
to-morrow. 

Farm Camp, Sunday, Nov. i6th. 
Warm to-day ; . no snow after daylight. Snowed five 
inches last night. Cold enough to-day so the snow did not 
pack much. Joe and I started as soon as we could see to 
walk, but we found "Johnny's " tracks going b3^our camp 
towards Birch Corner. Alec went with him. They passed 
along about ten minutes ahead of us. We had breakfast 
and set around sucking the muzzels of our rifles about an 
hour before daylight. Joe and I went up on the north side 
of Moose Brook. Joe jumped three deer, all of which he 
saw, but did not get a shot. I jumped six; all but two of 
them I started before I saw their track. I shot and killed 
one doe. I missed her the first shot, and set her to run- 
ning, and hit her in the neck the second shot. She lays in 
the trail about one and one-half miles this side of Beaver 
Pond. Danforth fired at two bucks with his 44 Smith & 
Wesson revolver and missed them both. He killed one at 



32 

Black Pond with it, lately. Alec did not see any deer at 
all. It looks warm to-night, not below freezing, but warm- 
er than it ought to be for still-hunting. Alec came over to 
stop with us to-night. Another early start in the morning, 
I must have a good buck. 

Farm Camp, Monday, Nov. 17TH. 
Warm to-day; rained and snowed after 2 o'clock p. m, 
I did not see a deer all daj'-, neither did Alec or Joe. I 
whistled one, so did Alec. The old and new tracks looked 
alike this morning ; it was hard to distinguish them apart. 
The snow packed and crunched under our feet most of the 
day. I do n't know whether Danforth had any luck to-day 
or not. He got in late. Charley fired three shots from the 
island, for a signal to him. Joe and I heard it, and went 
out doors just in time to hear Alec answer with three shots 
from Birch Corner, and think it all was from Alec's rifle. 
I answered with three shots, and started to find him, 
thinking he had lost his compass, or got hurt. I fired at 
intervals of five minutes as I ran, getting an answer everj^ 
time, and soon met him all right, and learned the cause df 
his first shooting. When we arrived here Charley had 
come over from the island to get us to go for Danforth, but 
we fired again and he answered from his boat on the. lake ; 
so we settled down, and had our supper. It is snowing 
hard to-night, big flakes and damp ones. Joe and I are 
going down to Black Cat in the morning, for our day's 
hunt. 

Farm Camp, Tuesday, Nov. i8th. 

Warm and snowy this morning. Joe and I put in a 

boat and went down to Black Cat. It was snowing very 

hard when we went down the lake ; it came in big, damp 

flakes from the north-west. Snowed four inches last night 



33 

and this morning-. The snow laj^ed in the water from here 
to Moose Brook, two inches deep, making it hard rowing. 
It has been a good day for still-hunting. The dry limbs 
of the birch were falling ever>'where, on account of the 
heavy load of snow on them ; and in many cases, whole 
trees came thundering down. Joe and I each got a buck 
though they were small. Mine had spike horns, seven 
inches long, and Joe's did not have anj'^ horns at all. We 
killed them both about ii o'olock. I fired at mine six 
times, four running shots, and two standing ones. I hit 
him both times standing, through the hips. I went after 
another small one and saw him twice. Came very near 
getting a shot at him. Joe saw one after he killed his, but 
got no shot. We both dragged our deer down to the 
boat-landing, and brought them up to the island, and left 
them there. We took out their inwards, where we killed 
them. When we reached the island, which we had to 
through a channel made by Charley's boat, we found 
Charley had been to Long Pond, and killed a small doe, and 
had her there. We found Alec at camp when we arrived. 
He had had hard luck, and got no deer, although he had 
made some long chases. It is freezing some to-night and I 
fear to-morrow will be too crusty for any good hunting. 
Mr. Danforth did not hunt to-day, on account of Mrs. 
Danforth's being unwell. We found the deer were all 
down in the swamps to-day, none on the hard-wood hills 
at all. 

Farm Camp, Wednesday, Nov. iqth. 
It froze a little last night, but it snowed this morning 
and was warm, so the crust did not amount to anything. 
I went to Birch Corner ; Alec and Joe went in the vicinitj' 
of I,ong Pond. I hunted a long time before I found a 
fresh track ; it was after ten o'clock when I found a track 



34 

of a good-sized deer that was following slowly on the trail 
of two other deer that were running. I followed him four 
hours, expecting to see him every minute. Finally he 
overtook the two that he was after, in a swamp. I crept 
around on their tracks, which were nice and fresh, till 
they left the swamp for the hard- wood, where they must 
have scented me, for they ran a long ways. I followed 
them one-half mile and they kept running, and it being 
time for me to return to camp, not knowing just where I 
was, I started, arriving here at 4:15 o'clock p. m. Alec 
and Joe were at camp. Alec saw one deer and shot at him 
on the jump, and missed him ; Joe did not see any at all. 
Those three I followed were the only tracks I saw. I 
think we will all go down the lake in the morning, hunting 
at Black Cat and towards Pittsburg, as the deer are getting 
very shy around Birch Corner. It is warm and snowing 
.some out-doors, to-night ; there is six inches of snow, now, 
on the level, and to-morrow ma}^ be a good day, if it does 
not freeze to-night. 

Farm Camp, Thursday, Nov. 20TH. 
Cold and windy to-day. Froze last night. Joe and I 
took a boat and went out through the ice, in the channel 
that we made yesterday and day before. We landed at 
Flat Rock Point and went along the shore and across 
Indian Point. We saw one deer track, but it was so 
crusty and hard walking that we gave up the idea of hunt- 
ing and returned to camp, where we took a light lunch, 
and then started after the doe that I shot and left on the 
Beaver Pond trail. I did not know just where I left it and 
on account of the snow that had fallen, we walked right 
over it, both of us stepping on it without seeing it, and 
passed on nearly a mile, and then, knowing we must have 
passed it, we came back, and I, being behind, noticed 



35 

once, as Joe stepped on a little mound of snow, that it 
yielded rather more than most rocks or knolls do, so kick- 
ing away the snow, I uncovered the deer. I reckon the 
next time I leave a deer in the woods I shall stick up a 
stick or spot a tree to mark the place. Alec went to Birch 
Corner and he had a queer experience, something I have 
read of in ' ' Van Dyke's Still-hunter, ' ' but never saw, myself. 
As he w^as walking along the trail near Birch Corner he 
saw a good-sized doe running by, and raised his rifle and 
fired three shots at her. The third shot hit her, killing her 
outright. He then dragged her to the trail in a good place 
to skin her, and set his rifle against a tree about ten feet 
awa)', when, as he was stooping over her, knife in hand, 
he heard a trampling in the crust, and looking up saw a 
large buck, about twenty-five feet away, come to a halt 
and stand looking at him. Alec made a move to reach 
his rifle, andj:he buck wheeled about and run. Alec sent 
three shots after him, without hitting him. No sooner was 
that buck out of sight, than a second one came hurrynng 
along on the trail of the doe, but seeing Alec or smelling 
the smoke, did not stop, but turned tail and run after the 
first. Alec fired twice at him, but missed him, also. 
Those bucks were in the "running" season after that doe, 
and had Alec known they were after her he might easily have 
killed them both. The first one, he says, was a ver>' large 
one with a heavy set of antlers. He came to camp and 
got his knapsack and brought his deer in on his back. 
We skinned them both and hanged the meat in the work- 
shop. We skinned out both the heads this evening, for 
mounting. He and I made a soup for breakfast and Joe 
went to bed an hour earlier than ever, because Alec and I 
put thee3es into our soup. We can't see why they should 
not be as good as boiled eggs. The wind is blowing hard 
to-night, and it is the coldest night 3'et, though I do n't. sup- 



36 

pose it is very cold compared with the weather we shall 
have soon. Alec and I are going to Birch Corner, to-mor- 
row, to hunt a little different way than we usually do. 
Our plan is for one of us to follow on the trail and the other 
to make large circles ahead of him and cut off, in the hopes 
of getting a running shot. Joe is going up towards Beaver 
Pond to hunt. 

Farm Camp, Friday, Nov. 21ST, 

Quite cold to-day. Alec's hunt 3'esterday inspired us 
with new courage, and we all three went hunting. Alec 
and I went to Birch Corner, and Joe toward Beaver Pond. 
We did not jump any deer, although we saw many large 
tracks, made last night. We came in quite earl}^ and split 
some wood and calked the camp. I took a pick-pole and 
crossed the lake on the ice for the first time this year. I 
saw Danforth's picture-frame, made of beaver- wood. It is 
verj'' pretty and odd looking. I found the ice about two 
and one-half inches in thickness. Danforth sends us to 
Cupsuptic and anjavhere we think best, to-morrow, to hunt. 
We don't expect to find much crust over there. I expect 
Clarke Hill will be over in the morning to go with us. 

Saturday, Nov. 22ND. 

lyost in the woods again. Alec and I planned last night 
to go to Cupsuptic, by going first to Birch Corner, and 
then keeping on east about three miles, then turn north 
and go around the head-waters of Moose Brook, and strike 
the trail near Lapwater. So we started that way, and 
Clarke and Joe went the usual way, by the trail. When 
Alec and I had traveled about four miles, I, who was 
ahead, saw^ a small deer arise from its bed, about one 
hundred yards off, and, through a haze of white maples, I 



37 

took aim and fired at it, and missed it slick and clean, we 
followed on it's trail a little way, and Alec saw it run once. 
It was a little one, but I felt very much chop- fallen at 
missing it, but now I am very glad it took care of itself. 
We jumped another big one in open growth, as we tramped 
along. ]t was nice hard-wood all the time, and as tracks 
of deer were plentj^ we kept a sharp lookout for them, and 
our trouble was rewarded at last, as, coming to the top of 
a hill, we saw a very large buck coming to his feet, not 
over twenty-five yards from us. He was so quick that he 
ran before we could get a standing shot, but the woods 
was open for a long ways, and we w^as soon at work with 
our Winchesters, in a way to make things lively. First, 
we noticed he run sick, and then a well-aimed shot brought 
him down altogether. He was a big fellow and had one shot 
through his neck and another behind his shoulder. He had 
a good head of six tines, two on one horn and four on the 
other. We cut him up, and made a knapsack of his hide, 
having only one with us, and divided up the meat and went 
on, expecting to find the trail soon as we had turned north ; 
but, being cumbered with our load, and finding it much 
farther than we expected, night overtook us here by the 
edge of the worst fir-swamp w-e have seen all day. We 
had one little ax wnth us, and we soon started a good fire, 
and, having some butter with us, we cut off some slices of 
venison and broiled it on some spits, and had some butter 
on it. We warmed some birch slabs for plates, and it was 
the sweetest meat I ever ate, and we ate a hearty supper on 
it. It is 12 o'clock now. We are not going to sleep any 
to-night. It snows most of the time, and is quite cold. 
Here is no brook so we melt snow in a butter can to drink. 
We got a sable and partridge to-day. But that shooting- 
was the finest thing that I ever took part in. I had my last 
cartridge in my rifle barrel, preparing to give him a parting 



38 

salute, when he plowed a furrow in the snow. Our packs 
are very heavy, about eighty pounds. 

Camp Cupsuptic, Sunday, Nov. 23RD. 
Snowy to-day, and a little colder than yesterda^^ Alec 
and I ate a hearty breakfast this morning, o.f venison 
broiled with butter. We had a lunch at twelve last night. 
We chopped up a whole birch, about twelve hiches in 
diameter, for fire-wood and after midnight we fell into a 
doze many times. The night was not cold enough to 
endanger us any from freezing, and the sleep we got 
done us a great deal of good. We started early ; tried to 
get around the fir-swamp by going east, but to no avail ; 
we wallowed in brush and snow, and climbed old, down 
trees for about an hour, and my pack hurt my shoulders so 
bad, on account of the straps being only spun yarn, that I 
left it to go on and reach the trail, and then come back and 
help Alec through. But I traveled for two hours in a 
northerly direction, and having got out of the swamp and 
reached a big, hard- wood hill, I turned back. I met Alec 
in one-half hour coming with his load. I had no idea of 
going back after mine that day, but finding that he had 
lost a bundle of clothes out of his pack some way back, I 
thought I had better go and get it; so, at eleven o'clock 
A. M. I was just where I was at 7:15 o'clock that morning. 
It did look as though there had been some ver}- poor judg- 
ment, but I cut the bones out of my meat and started on 
Alec's trail. I had persuaded him to leave part of his load 
and now he had, as near as I could calculate, three hours 
the start of me. I ate a large quantit}^ of raw meat, as I 
walked along, which done me a great deal of good. I 
found where one large deer had crossed his trail after he 
had gone along. The hill I was on when I turned back, 
proved to be a big one, indeed. I was very warm before I 



39 

reached the top of it, and was about as faint and near gone 
ae a fellow ever is, when I pitched over on the north slope. 
Here I ate more meat, and afterwards felt better. Alec 
stepped about eight inches while climbing, but now he let 
out to about two feet and I was obliged to stop fives times 
or more, to him once. I knew he was bound to reach a 
camp that night, and so I knew I had got to, for he had 
the only ax with him. Well, I hit the new Cupsuptic trail 
about two miles from camp, and found he had gone on. I 
hung to my load and reached camp about three-quarters of 
an hour behind him. 1 was troubled with cramp in my legs 
and hands a good deal in the evening, so I could not write. 
We found Clarke and Joe at camp. Joe had been out 
hunting that day, without success; but Clarke was sick 
and could not go. The snow is about eighteen inches 
deep over here, and hunting good. We ate some supper 
to-night. 

Cupsuptic, Monday, Nov. 24TH. 
No snow last night. I went to my traps on the Bog 
Stream. Got one small beaver ; found lots of otter tracks. 
I took up all but one beaver trap there, and that one I set 
for otter. I set five traps among the beaver works above this 
camp, including the bear trap. When I reached the bea- 
ver pond last mentioned, the first thing I done was to go 
through the ice into the water above my knees, putting one 
arm under nearly to my shoulder, also ; but I stayed and 
set every trap, five in all, and then returned to camp. 
Alec and Joe hunted all day, without getting anything. I 
felt first-rate to-day. My moccasins hurt my toes so bad 
to-day jthat I went to work this evening and made me a 
pair out of the buck's hide that we brought in last night. 
I was iK)t long about it and they are the most comical look- 
ing things I ever saw, with the hair all on ; but I have 



40 

great confidence in them. Clarke is not growing any bet- 
ter and is going home to-morrow ; the rest of us are going 
to make an earh' start for deer in the morning as it is 
snowing a little here to-night and we can tell a fresh track 
as soon as we see it. Alec cooked the beaver to-night after 
he skinned it, and he and I ate some of it and it was excel- 
lent. He boiled it. 

CUPSUPTIC, TuEvSDAY, NoV. 25TH. 

Warm and cloiidy to-day. The snow packed consider- 
able in the afternoon. Snowed some last night and this 
forenoon. We all went up to Lapwater and there separated. 
I went a piece with Clarke, who went to Parmachenee, and 
then turned off south. I found many 5^ards of deer, but the 
paths were so thick, it took me a long time to get one 
singled out. They were feeding on the round-wood plums 
which the heavy weight of snow had bowed down to within 
their reach. I followed my deer about one hour, after I 
got him singled out, and then ran on to him, to within 
thirty feet. It was too thick and bushy. He started 
before I saw him. I fired once after him and ought to 
hit him, but did not. He was, I think, the largest buck I 
•ever saw, with a set of antlers which seemed to spread over 
two feet at the points. Alec got two does. He shot the 
first one before he followed her a rod and when he got her 
all dressed and fixed ready to leave, he looked up and saw 
another one standing about twenty feet away and looking 
at him ; so he shot her. Thej' were ver}- large ones. Joe 
did not get a shot at all, to-da3^ I made Alec a pair of 
moccasins like mine, this evening. I like mine first-rate. 
Our flour is nearly all gone and some one has got to go to 
White Cap to-morrow to get some from there. 



41 

White Cap Camp, Wednesday, Nov. 26TH. 
Froze last night and snowed three inches. Windy and 
snowy all day. I went hunting in the same place I hunted 
yesterday. I wallowed in snow nearly to my knees till 
afternoon, without seeing any tracks, except two fawns, 
and I did not want them. I came to camp and had a 
lunch and then sarted for White Cap ; it was two o'clock. 
I found the snow very deep and the spots covered with snow, 
which made me some trouble. The snow was four inches 
above my knees. I did not reach Deniston's Bog until it 
had begun to grow dark, and when I got into camp, it was 
as dark as it will be any time to-night. I found some 
genius had been here and burned all the w^ood that I left, 
and not cut any more, besides the bag of flour I come after 
is very low. So I had to go to work in the dark and hunt 
up some dry firs, which are not plenty in daylight, and 
cut wood enough for to-night, to cook and dry my clothes. 
I banked up the camp with snow, knowing that would 
help out the wood question a great deal. I saw the track 
of one deer, coming over, but had no time to follow it. I 
brought over the shoulder and leg of a small deer with 
me. I fried the meat on it for my supper, and made a 
stew of the bone for my breakfast. I heard one shot be- 
fore I started for here. It was from Alec or Joe. Hope 
they got the buck I missed yesterday. 

CupsuPTic, Thursday, Nov. 27TH. 
I had a good comfortable night last night. I came back 
to Cupsuptic this forenoon. Crossed two deer tracks, but 
they were made in the night, and going down into the 
swamp, so I did not follow them. After dinner I chopped 
wood. Joe arrived early and we both chopped wood. We 
got a good pile before night. I made a soup and cleared 
off the table. Neither Alec or Joe saw any deer to-day. 



42 

They both saw a buck yesterday, and shot at them running, 
but missed them both. 

Camp Cupsuptic, Friday, Nov. 28th. 
Cold and cloudy to-day. No sun in sight all day. We 
all of us went up to the beaver dam to dig them out. We 
broke the ice down around the house, and, while one of us 
watched it, the other two went down and cut a hole in the- 
dam, and drew off all the water. We saw no beaver, and 
after the water was all gone, we tore open the house. We 
found it warm and steaming inside, but no beaver there. 
Then we went around the pond, breaking down the ice, and 
digging into all the holes in the bank. The snow bothered 
us some, but we hunted everywhere for them in vain. It 
is a mystery to us where they hid so quick, for we dug to 
the end of every hole we found. I got a foot wet, about an 
hour before we quit, which caused me considerable trouble. 
Joe was sick with a bad cold, and did not go out in the 
afternoon. Alec went up on the old Arnold's Bog trail, 
and got a sable in a trap he had set near the dressings of 
the deer he killed. He got a sable there yesterday, too. 
I went over on the Bog Stream and took up an otter trap, 
which I had there. Saw some otter tracks on the snow in 
several places. I hunted up the Bog Stream for deer, but 
saw no fresh signs. Came home on the White Cap line. 
We left five traps setting around the ruins of the beaver- 
works. We expect to have a beaver in some of them in the 
morning. We are going to Lower Black Pond in the 
morning. The brush is so thick, and the snow so deep 
here that we can't see a deer more than thirty feet away. 
We think we can do better up there. No snow fell last 
night or to-day. Alec and I ate the brains of two deer, for 
breakfast this morning, fried in butter. We found them 
first rate. 



43 

Camp Caribou, Saturday, Nov. 29TH. 
Snowed some all da}^ ; the sky looked like a heav}- snow 
or rain. I went up to the beaver traps as soon as I could 
see this morning. Found four traps sprung, and the fifth 
setting, but not a toe or hair in one of them. I hung all 
the traps up in trees, and gave up beat again. Alec went 
to Black Pond again, and as Joe's throat was sore, and he 
was sick generally, I packed up my knapsack with heads, 
empty cans, etc. , and came home with him. The snow grad- 
ually grew thinner as we approached the lake. We halted 
at beaver pond, and had a lunch, then came on. We had no 
trouble in crossing the lake on the ice. We found Dan- 
forth and all hands well. Danforth had shot three deer, 
with his revolver, and lost them all. The hunting is good 
around the lake, and I think I shall hunt here awhile, 
instead of joining Alec at Black Pond, as I had planned 
to do. 

Camp Caribou, Sunday, Nov. 30TH. 
Warm and sunny all day, and looked very much like 
rain. We put a boat on a sled, and went down to the 
Magalloway landing to make a road. We found the ice 
one and one-half inches thick, in the thinnest places, and 
from that to four inches, with four inches of snow on it. 
We cut holes all the way, to let the water up, so it could 
freeze. Joe and I w^ent hunting the rest of the day, to get 
some partridges for Mrs. Danforth to take home with her, 
as she intends to go soon. I took my revolver and got a 
shot at one partridge, which I hit quite hard, but lost. 
Then I followed some deer, and soon had a good shot at a 
small doe. I fired once standing, and three times as they 
ran. I found I had missed them, and returned to where I 
done the shooting, to find the cause of the accident. I 
found the shot had hit a white maple about two rods before 



44 

it reached the deer, which turned it aside. It was ver^^ 
aggravating, as it was a good shot, and would certainly 
have killed, if not for the bush. I followed another larger 
one, and fired at it, as it run from behind a top, but missed 
that also. Joe got two partridges. 

Camp Caribou, Monday, De:c. ist. 
Cold and windy all day, real zero weather, the first such 
weather we have had this fall. I went to Birch Corner 
hunting. I had to thrash my hands and rub my ears to 
keep Jack Frost away. I overhauled one nice little buck 
with seven tines on his horns, and laid him out in his 
tracks, the first shot. Then the fun began. If I had been 
cold before, I was colder now, and I was forced to put my 
hands inside the carcass many times, while dressing it, to 
keep them from freezing. I found another buck's head 
hanging in a tree, by the trail, with a note pinned to it, to 
have it set up, and kept for Cal. Johnson. I brought both 
heads home with me. We ate pop-corn and told stories 
to-night till some of us fell asleep and nearly choked our- 
selves with a mouthful of pop-corn . Joe hunted to-day but 
without success. 

Camp Caribou, Tuesday, Dec. 2nd. 
Cold and windy to-day ; fifteen degrees below zero this 
morning. Charley and I went hunting to-day. I found 
some deer in the lowlands at the head of the big bog, but 
it was bushy for me to get at them. I, not feeling very 
well to-day, having a cold on my lungs, was ver>' uncom- 
fortable with the cold. Came in early. Jim Bragg came 
with a span of horses from Erroll this afternoon. He un- 
hitched them before coming onto the lake, and drove them 
one behind the other and reached the island in safety ; then. 
we went down and hauled the sled up by hand. Charley saw 



45 

a buck and shot at him, missing him, several times. I 
have been thinking, to-night, that if I v;as to lay out in 
the woods to-night, as cold as it now is, and not feeling 
real tough, that I should not be worth hunting up to-mor- 
row. The snow is getting most awful hard to wallow 
through all day. I think I shall go on snow-shoes the 
next time I go out hunting, until I find a fresh track, and 
then take them on my back and hunt. 

Camp Caribou, Wednesday, Dec. 3RD. 
Very cold and windy to-day. We loaded Mrs. Danforth 
and the little boy into the sled with the trunks, etc., and 
hitched one horse onto the pole, with fifty feet of line 
between him and the sled, and led the other horse on 
ahead. Two of us carried the pole between us and we 
went down to the outlet on the ice, which is glare most of 
the way, in safety. We saw them off in good trim, though 
starting on a long, cold ride. We had to face a nor' west 
wind back to camp, with the mercur>^ twenty-one below 
zero, which nearly froze our faces. We had an uncontrol- 
lable tendency to laugh, as we looked into each other's faces, 
which were very red and stiff with cold ; and the more we 
laughed the more pleased we w'ere. My throat was ver}' 
sore to-da3' and I was so hoarse I could hardly speak, 
besides being lame all over. We put some boats that were 
on the island, under Caribou and Moose I>)dge, and then 
I stayed in the house the remainder of the day and doctored 
myself. The weather moderated some before noon and a 
heavy snow set in from the south-east, which lasted all the 
afternoon and night. Danforth and I are going to Black 
Pond to-morrow, to carry Alec some snow-shoes to come 
out on, if I am well enough to go. Danforth poured a 
little of Johnson's lyiniment onto my throat and the region 
about it, before I went to bed. 



46 

Camp Caribou, Thursday, Dec. 41*11. 
Warmer this morning, twenty-one above zero. I repaired 
some snow-shoes to-day, as I was not in condition to work 
out-doors. I fixed three pair. Danforth went hunting on 
vSnow- shoes and found one deer, but did not get him. Alec 
came home about one o'clock p. m. He stayed at Rump 
Pond last night. The snow was nearly to his waist coming 
down this morning through the woods. It took him four 
and one-half hours on the trail ; usual time in summer is 
one hour. 

Rump Pond, Friday, Dec. 5Th. 
Weather was mild to-day; snowed a little, at times, all 
day. There was two feet of snow in the last storm. Joe 
and I got ready with some provisions and a big iron-locker, 
which we loaded onto a sled and drawed up to Little Boys' 
Falls ; then I took the locker and Joe the knapsack, and 
broke ahead all the way to Rump Pond. My lungs were 
in such a fix that I could hardly keep up, and I couldn't 
go ahead at all. It was ver>' hard breaking ahead, and 
Alec plowed such a furrow in the middle of the road that 
it was continually causing our snow-shoes to tip up edge- 
ways, giving us a burrow in the snow. We got here in 
about two hours, and after dinner started to our traps. 
There was much water on the ice on the river, and we got 
our snow-shoes wet more than forty times. When we got 
to the last bear trap at Billings' Pond, which was all right, 
it was so late and I was beginning to feel as though I had 
been shot through the chest, that we turned back to camp 
to finish seeing the traps to-morrow. Joe got here to camp 
a long way ahead of me; I got here, though, in season to 
eat my share of the supper. We saw several deer tracks 
and otter holes to-day. The deer's bellies drag in the 
snow most all the time. If we had a crust on this snow I 



': 47 

would do some Mill-hunting of a serious nature, a kind of 
still-hunting that requires more muscle than science. 

Camp Caribou, Saturday, Dec. 6th. 
Cold this morning. Our snow-shoes' road froze so hard 
on the river that Joe and I went up to Billings' Pond with- 
out any on. We took up every otter and beaver trap. 
Didn't have a thing in any of them. We started for home 
at 2:30 o'clock. Got here soon after dark. Snowed this 
afternoon, and the wind blows from the south, but it is 
warm to-night. Danforth and Alec has gone to Cupsuptic 
this morning, and Joe and I are going to follow them 
to-morrow. My cold was much better to-daj'. 

Camp Caribou, Sunday, Dec. 7TH. 
Windy and snowy to-day. Joe and I started for Cup- 
suptic this morning. I felt well enough when I started, 
but when I got to Beaver Pond, I gave up and left my pack 
and came home. I was very tired ; when I got home I slept 
most of the afternoon when I wasn't coughing. I came 
into Danforth 's room late in the afternoon. Mrs. Robarge 
doctored me. She put a mustard plaster on my left side as 
I had pleurisy. I had to keep moving it. I had it all over 
me before morning. Cliff Wiggin came up with the mail 
to-night and went back. 

Camp Caribou, Monday, Dec. 8th. 
Clear and warm to-day. I put in my time coughing and 
dozing in my chair and on the bed. Got over the crick in 
my side before night, so 1 could cough pretty well. 

Camp Caribou, Tuesday, Dec. qth. 
Twenty below zero this morning. Sun rose clear and 
warm. Clouded up about noon. Snowed some towards 



48 

night, but now it looks like rain. I took all day to write 
five letters. I felt some better, but ni}' coughing was quite 
bad. 

Camp Caribou, Wedne.sday, Dec. ioth. 
South winds to-day, with some snow. I worked hard all 
daj^ coughing and walking out doors and back. Danforth, 
Alec and Joe returned from their hunt to Cupsuptic. They 
arrived about three o'clock, p. m., with three quarters of 
venison and a good head, the best one of the fall hunt. It 
finishes the hunt for this season, so Danforth says. He 
and Alec shot it together. The}- fired sixteen shots at it 
before they brought it down, so it would stay. Thej^ fol- 
lowed him on snow-shoes, still-hunting him, till Alec saw 
his horns above the snow, as he laid behind a knoll or 
mound of snow. Alec fired for his head with his rifle, 
putting a bullet through both ears and creasing the top of 
its head. Up jumped deer and ran. Alec hitting him in 
the hind quarters and breaking a thigh the second shot. 
Then began the chase. Still-hunting was finished, and 
the snow being three or four feet deep both men struggled 
to get the chance to break a road for the other. Soon 
Danforth got the lead and out-winded Alec so much as to 
get out of his sight. So6n Alec heard him firing with his 
revolver and then saw the deer crossing in front of him and 
emptied his rifle at him, without causing any serious injury. 
Later on in the hunt, as Alec told the story, they were 
together and saw the deer suddenly spring to its feet and 
start on the run ; Alec fired, and down he came, flat and 
motionless. They both hurrahed and shook hands, and 
after getting their breath and making a few remarks about 
the hard run and final good shot, turned to go up to the 
spot where the deer la^-ed, when, as they looked, the)- saw 
him, not where he fell, but hardlj^ visible for snow flying, 



49 

and fast disappearing in a distance ; then they had to hnnt 
him some more. To finish it up, Danforth shot the last shot 
into his shoulder. He was a ver_v large buck, with a heavy 
set of antlers with seven tines. Some Frenchmen stopped 
here to-night, on a trip from Canada to break the road for 
winter use, hauling supplies. They seemed to have had a 
very hard time. They were eight days getting through, 
the snow being between three and four feet deep, and 
crossed b)^ many wind-falls. There was eight men and as 
many horses. They held a council of war out in the guides' 
office this evening. I was in Danforth 's room ; it sounded 
like a lot of swallows in a barn as I have heard them on a 
bright morning the last of June, when they were all busy 
building their nest and talking about them. I have 
noticed as I lay on the hay, for I often slept there in the 
warm weather before the new hay was put in the barns, 
that when a swallow came in with a load of mud or a 
feather, that after he deposited it he alwaj^s stopped to talk 
a moment in some unknown tongue, before going for 
another load. Now I recognize it, to-night, as the genu- 
ine Canadian French. 

Camp Caribou, Thursday, Dec. iith. 
Quite warm to-day ; south winds and some snow. Alec 
and the boys went over to the farm and cut wood. I was 
whooping around all day with a cough, like a Mississippi 
steamer stuck in the mud. I dug some on a coke which I 
am going to dig out hollow, and polish up and car\'e with 
many, many designs, such as tigers, doves, Indian devils, 
and pretty girls, highland caribou, and swamp angels. I 
cut through the side of it in one place, making a hole, 
which I shall have to make unnoticable by using it for 
some animal's eye. Quite a large crew came up from 
Ellingwood's camp, with horses, to meet the French toters 



50 

at the head of the lake, and take their hay down from there 
and break a road for them ; there is much water on the ice. 
Danforth presented Alec with a 44 Colt's revolver, bran 
new, never fired, and the belt-holster re-loading tools, for a 
Christmas present ; quite a fine present, it appears. Revolv- 
ers are fast becoming popular among Parmachenee guides. 
I am going to have me another revolver, an old tiger, 
shooting the same cartridge as m)' rifle. My old one shoots 
first-rate, but it is getting wore so it doesn't always work 
well. I shall keep it, though, for the good it has done. 
The game I have killed, as I remember it, is two deer, one 
bear, one beaver, one sable, one caribou, besides many par- 
tridges, rabbits, porcupines, and some still smaller things 
not worth mentioning, and it is good for a lot more service, 
yet. We had two games of auction pitch to-night, Dan- 
forth, I, Alec, Joe and Charley. We had an interesting 
time of it, Joe winning the first game and I the next. We 
had plenty of nuts and candy on the board. 

Camp Caribou, Friday, Dec. 12TH. 
Mild and quite sunny to-day. Alec and the boys cut 
wood. Danforth put our cross-cut saw in order. I am 
feeling a little better this forenoon. I went out in the 
wood-shed and sawed some wood for my little stove and 
brought it in. I found it much colder outside than I had 
anticipated ; the north-west wind and occasionally snow 
squalls and the sunshine, made me cough and drove me to 
my den, quite different from the cold weather that I expe- 
rienced three years ago the twenty-ninth of this month, 
when I first left home. Not my first experience in hunting 
or camp-life, by any means, for I have many fond recollec- 
tions of Umbagog I^ake, where, as soon as I was large 
enough so my mother would trust me alone with a gun 
loaded with a ' ' partridge charge " , I commenced to hunt ; 



51 

so, when, at her death, I was left to my own way, I natu- 
rally thought that hunting was the most manly profession 
a boy could engage in. 

Although for years I had had nearly the whole of Um- 
bagog L,ake, including the mouth of the Magalloway River, 
for about eight miles up the stream, and the Androscoggin 
down to Errol Dam for my hunting grounds, where I made 
havoc with the musk-rats and minks, occasionally getting 
a deer or bear, I had an idea that if the stories I had heard 
were true, I could easily double the amount of fur that I 
usually caught, by going further up the Magalloway or up 
through the Rangeley Lakes to the Cupsuptic. I chose a 
partner that had once rowed across Cupsuptic Lake and 
knew Deer Mountain at sight, he being a good walker and 
somewhat used to the woods. It was the first partner I ever 
had, and I determined to stick by him all winter. We 
started in October, the twenty-third. Our luggage was 
largely of traps, from the No. 2 Clipper to the No. 3 New- 
house beaver trap. We had a baker and two rifles and 
two revolvers. It took us nearly a week before w^e reached 
our place of camping for good. We spent several days ex- 
ploring the woods, before we commenced building our camp. 
But at last, thinking we had found the right place, we com- 
menced work and put up a camp, as I have often estimated 
it as I lay on the berth, ten feet square with an open fire in 
it. We afterwards had a .stove in it, and used the fire-place 
for a gum bin. When everything was complete, we went 
home after something which we could not get when we 
first went in, and on the night we reached home there 
came a nice snow-storm, so we determined to remain and 
hunt a few days. We hunted the few days, and then a 
cold night rendered the lakes impossible to cross. So we 
both w^ent into the logging swamp to work till we could 
cross the lakes on the ice, and when that time came, which 



52 

was the twenty-fourth of December, my partner thought 
he would remain where he was till spring, and then join me 
in the spring hunt. So I started with a heavy pack, i. e. a 
two-bushel bag of clothing and trinkets, apair of snow-shoes, 
a rifle and ax. I came through from pond in river, below 
Richardson Lake, to the head of Cupsuptic Lake, in two 
days and reached camp early in the afternoon. I bought 
a piece of pork of Billy Soule, whom I found getting in his 
annual supply of ice, as I passed by. I liked the appear- 
ance of him very much that time, and he invited me to 
come over and see him when I got straightened around. I 
thought we would be neighbors that winter, there being 
only about a mile between us. 

I found my camp all right ; I cut some wood and soon 
had it warm and comfortable. The following day was spent 
in banking up the camp with snow, cutting wood, putting 
up shelves, etc. I got it so I thought I could live there all 
right, and as I had changed my mind somewhat about 
trapping, I prepared to go out after gum the next day 
and look for deer, also. I had set my mind on picking 
two-thousand weight of spruce gum that winter, and pick 
up what fur I could. 

I arose early the following morning, and after breakfast 
took my gumming apparatus, buckled on my belt, in which 
I carried a Colt's revolver with ammunition, and set out. 
I tramped all day in eighteen inches of snow, getting but 
little gum and seeing no fresh deer tracks until near night, 
when I came into a fine j-ard of deer. The tracks were 
fresh and I thought best not to disturb them till the next 
day, as I had but little time that afternoon, and being a 
little uncertain just how far it was to camp. So I turned 
due east by my compass, and soon reached camp, finding 
ft not over one mile from where I found the deer. I ate 
ni}' supper, examined my rifle and put everthing in order 



53 

for a grand hunt the next cla3\ I had no notion of eating 
flapjacks and pork all winter without any fresh meat. 

The next morning, which is the day of which I had in 
my mind on beginning this article, and the most memorable 
day of that winter for me, was a bitter cold one. The snow 
was blowing through the trees in fitful gusts, causing them 
to crack and shed many an old, decayed limb. Occasionally 
I saw the sun through a haze of frost, which assisted me to 
keep my course. I took my back tracks, made the night 
before, and having wrapped myself in an extra pair of pants, 
an extra shirt and pair of mittens, with ears tied up, pro- 
ceeded straight to the place where I had found the deer- 
yard. I found fresh tracks and at once began stalking 
them, but they appeared to have just begun their day's 
ramble, the same as with me, and although I trailed them 
for probably several miles, I did not overtake them until 
noon, when I jumped them from their beds, five in number, 
and sent them bounding across a swamp which I knew was 
ver>^ near my camp. 

I went to camp, which was nearly in sight of where Host 
the deer, had a hasty dinner, and set out after them again. 
They led me across a swamp and then turned west, still 
keeping their jumping, till I had reached a point where the 
swamp was quite narrow and as I must cross it again in 
order to get to camp, and finding a good buck's track, 
which was, apparently, going to cross the swamp, I left 
the running deer and took it. I soon found I was follow- 
ing two deer and very large ones, too. They would sepa- 
rate and go a long distance and then meet again. I knew 
it was my last chance that night, which was fast appproach- 
ing, so I used every caution to make the most of it. I followed 
those deer about a mile and came ver}- near firing at a stump 
once. Finally, after crossing the stream and reaching the 
high land which I knew must laj- back of my camp, and on 



54 

emerging from a thick growth of small firs covered with snow, 
tired, leg- wear}', discouraged, I was first struck with the 
open and level appearance of the forest in front of me, and 
then started in a wild excitement as I observ^ed a large buck 
lying in a perfectly open space, not over five yards off. There 
he was, at last, the finest specimen I had ever seen, and till 
to-day, I think, I never killed a finer one. His neck looked 
to me as large as a water-pail, and his sleek, reddish-brown 
coat on the snow had an effect on me which I shall never 
forget. His horns were finely curv^ed and contained, at 
least, eight tines, and worst of all he was looking directly 
at me. I noticed that he must run at least fifty 
yards before he could get out of my sight, and I at once 
reckoned him as my meat. He looked like a small mark 
for me to hit as I had not much confidence in my skill with 
a rifle at that time, so I began slowly to drop into the 
snow on one knee, raising my rifle steadily as I done so. 
But just before I had got my position to shoot, he suddenly 
turned his head, la3'ed back his ears, and sprang into the 
air. He didn't get up like a cow or sheep, as I expected 
he woi;ld, but simply shot out of the snow as if blown out 
by a charge of powder. As he left the snow I fired, and 
.quickly loaded, and seeing my prize making for a thicket 
with long, graceful bounds, I cooly fired again and again. 
At the last shot, which was at a point where he was clear- 
ing a wind-fall, I felt sure I had hit him, unless I had shot 
behind. I ran down to where he layed when I first saw him 
and fired my first shot, and no blood or hair did I find. I 
followed him up to where I fired the last shot, and found it 
had sailed over the wind-fall just right just where 1 wanted 
it, and must have hit him, so with my eyes on the snow, 
eagerly looking for blood, I hurried along his trail, and 
soon ran blindly onto him, and saw him go flying through 
the woods, like a bird on the wing. I sent another shot 



55 

after him and then gave chase. I soon found I had broken 
a hind leg above the gambrel, and as it was actually grow- 
ing dark, and was very cold and windy, I shouldered my 
rifle and turned and ran as fast as I could through the deep 
snow in the direction of camp. I felt sure I could run 
down a three-legged deer all right, and that handsome 
head made me feel rich. 

The thought of the other deer, deer in company with the 
one I had shot, occurred to me as I went plunging through 
the snow, and I was sweeping the woods around with my 
eyes as I ran, when suddenly out from under some leaning 
trees where he had took refuge for the night from the storm, 
went a big deer. I began to pull off mittens and brush 
snow off the sights of my rifle, but before I was ready to 
shoot he had disappeared. I watched him steadily, and 
thought I should have seen him further off", and got a shot 
unless he had stopped. So moving to one side, so as to get 
a view where he had disappeared, I saw the line of his 
back from his tail to his neck. I dared not see any further 
for I knew he was looking for me. " Now no more knee 
rest or hesitation in shooting deer when they are looking 
for you." I had learned an important lesson, though pay- 
ing dearly for it. I took my position and aimed at the edge 
of the snow below his back, as well as I could in the dim 
light and fired, breaking his back near his hips. I ran up 
and sent a ball into his head to kill him the quickest way, 
then as quickly as possible took out his inwards and buried 
him in the snow. Now it was too dark to see to shoot, and 
in twenty minutes it would be too dark to travel, and I 
knew not how far I was from camp, but I thought it could 
not be over one-half mile. I had some hesitation about 
leaving that deer-skin there, for if I had to lay out on such 
a night as that one promised to be, a deer- skin would be 
verv convenient. But I knew I could find the lake, at least, 



56 

and so once more ran down the slope and in less than ten 
minutes, I saw the camp directly in front of me. I had gone 
directly to it without hitting any of my tracks made that 
morning. 

Well I was very thoughtful that evening, as I sat on my 
berth, my feet on the stove hearth, smoking a short cla^' 
pipe. I had killed a good big, fat buck, but he did n't have 
any horns, and I had a beauty somewhere with a broken 
leg. I didn't know how he would act the next day, but I 
was very anxious to find out. I had never had any expe- 
rience with wounded deer, but I concluded he would stop 
very often, and I would soon get another shot and lay 
him out. 

The next morning, the thirtieth of December, I was off 
early. First I dragged my deer, which I left the night before, 
down to camp, and put it inside to keep it from freezing till 
I could get time to dress it ; then taking my rifle and 
a lunch, went for the deer with the broken leg. I soon 
found him in a swamp, where he had taken the greatest 
caution to stop where nothing could approach him b}' waj' 
of his trail, without alarming him in season to escape. He 
had layed down eleven times in as many different places, 
and went off clearing wind-falls as high as my head, seem- 
ing not to mind the absence of a leg in the least, and be- 
sides being broken it was thrashing around in the brush 
when he run, and dragging behind when he walked. I fol- 
lowed him all day, starting him five times onl}^ and each 
time from a point where he could not be approached unob- 
serv^ed, and each time bounding off in every respect equal 
to a well deer. I gave him up late in the afternoon and 
reached the lake after dark, aboutone-half mile from camp. 
That night there fell a foot of snow, which rendered all old 
tracks invisible. I regretted very much to lose him and 
until to-day I never lost a deer or anything for which I so 



57 

much regretted as that old fellow that sailed over the spruce 
top while the woods rang with the voice of my little thirty- 
eight Winchester. 

The following winter (1887) I spent collecting spruce 
gum, of which I got 2,363 pounds, which I sold at five cents 
per pound, besides thirty pounds of a finer quality, which 
brought from one dollar down to fifty cents per pound. 
Night after night I came in with from thirty to sixty pounds 
on my back. I called on Billy Soule often and got many of 
my supplies there. Excepting neighbor Billy, I seldom 
saw a man, and learned to be happy after my day's work 
was done ; I was content to sit and pick over gum mau)^ 
nights till twelve o'clock, and, although it seems incredible, 
it was the happiest winter I ever did and probably ever 
shall spend. I stayed till the winter broke up, and then 
moved over to Billy's, to whom I am indebted to for the 
first job in guiding that I ever took. 

Camp Caribou, Saturday, December 13TH. 
Cold and windy to-day ; the boys sawed wood. Danforth 
worked around the office and his room. I put on my snow- 
shoes and went over to where Alec and the boys were cut- 
ting wood. They had a nice pile, and plenty more good 
yellow birches standing around ; from there I went up to a 
hedgehog's hole, with the hopes of finding him out and 
having an opportunity of boiling out his skull, as I always 
have a prejudice against hedgehogs, owing to several inci- 
dents which occurred at home where they were much more 
plenty than they are here. It was always a daily task for 
some of our family to look over the cattle and horses every 
night, and visit those in pastures away from the main farm 
at least once a week, to see if there was an}^ hedgehog quills 
in their feet or noses, and I have often seen an ox come to 
barn at night with his nose looking at first sight, fairly gray 



58 

with quills ; then we must tie him up close to a strong post 
or tree, and blindfold him, and then while one held him by 
the horns as best he could, another draw out the quills 
with a pair of nippers, which was done by quick pulls as 
they came much easier that way. It takes about seven days 
for a dose of quills to work into the flesh below the surface 
beyond the reach of the nippers. I once saw a musk-rat 
with long quills eight or ten in number, drove far into its 
nose. How they could have reached such a depth without 
killing the rat, is a mystery to me, but the way he got 
them was plain enough and was the same as in the case of 
the cattle which I have just mentioned. He no doubt saw 
the hedgehog on some log that projected into the water and 
out of curiosity approached it till he was near enough, when 
it lent him a blow^ with that heavy tail bristling with quills. 
They often are seen around old fences and even in the open 
field or pasture far from the woods ; thus the oxen get their 
curiosity satisfied. We had a dog that was death on 
hedgehogs. She treed eleven one summer, all of which 
was killed. Sometimes she got her no.se too close, but 
alwa^'s kept quiet and allowed me to pull them out. I have 
known her to sit and watch one for three hours before any- 
one came to shoot the hedgehog. That was the only w^ay 
we could tell whether she had a hedgehog or a squirrel. 
She would hold the former all day, but the latter she would 
give up in a short time. Once while making maple sugar 
in spring I noticed some mornings that a hedgehog 
had been around the sugar-house gnawing things some, 
and I disliked his presence very much, for fear he would tip 
over a tub of syrup or gnaw through the side and let the 
syrup out. Besides all the damage he could do, I didn't 
want him around anyway. I didn't propose to associate 
with any such company. Several times I tried to follow 
him to some tree on the morning crust, but either he took 



59 

to some hole, or else I lost the track, owing to the snow 
being too light. I might have trapped him, and so I did, 
but he would get out of the trap by way of not getting into 
it right, every time. One night I thought I would make 
sure of him, as I was obliged to remain at the sugar-house 
all night, in order to keep the sap boiling, on account of a 
big run. So I took a double shot-gun with me, and slept 
in front of the arch-door, which gave out sufficient heat to 
make it comfortable all night. About midnight I heard my 
friend knocking around the wood-pile and treading on some 
birch-bark. I layed quiet till I had him located, and got 
my eyes open, then sprung to my feet, gun in hand. Instead 
of his looking up in surprise, or turning tail and rounding 
up to await an attack, his quills bristling in every direc- 
tion, he came out by me like a frightened dog, and started 
up a steep incline. Unfortunately, I had glanced into the 
glowing arch, which rendered me blind as a bat, it being 
a very dark night ; but I let first one barrel and then the other 
go as I heard him go scrambling from my presence. The 
next morning I found I had missed him, but I thought I 
had given him such a scare that he would keep away in 
the future. Soon after the night I spent at the sugar-house 
came a day of sugaring off the syrup on hand. When this 
was done and the sugar removed from the pan, there was, 
of course, quite a lot left sticking to the pan. As I should 
boil sap next there would be none wasted. On the night 
following the sugaring off, there fell three inches of damp 
snow, and as I entered the sugar-house the next morning 
I noticed I had another visit from my friend, and this time 
he started my envy, for he had been in the pan lapping it 
and leaving quills scattered around inside sticking to the 
pan wherever he touched it. It was necessary therefore 
to wash the pan which would waste at least one barrel of 
sap, or the produce from thirty-five trees for one day. I 



6o 

obsen^ed his tracks as they came and went on the snow, 
and taking the latter ones I hurried off, determined to 
either kill him or plug him into his hole, till I got through 
making sugar. His tracks led me into a thick cedar swamp 
and, as the snow was beginning to yield to the warm April 
sun, I got dripping wet, as I pressed through the bushes. 
I soon came to where he had took to a hole under a ledge, 
and kneeling down, I looked for a long time into the dark 
cave. When my eyes got accustomed to the darkness I 
saw him about ten feet in. I got out a small thirty-two 
Colt's revolver and began firing at him, and soon was able 
to draw him out with a crotched stick. He was a big 
fellow, weighing at least forty pounds. I had no more 
trouble with hedgehogs that spring. 

I also well remember an incident that occurred to me 
when I was not over seven or eight years of age. It was 
nearly the first time I had been away camping out. It was 
in May. The ice was still in the main part of the lake, but 
the rivers and around the outlet of the lake, where my 
oldest brother George had a hunting and trapping camp, 
was open. I had begged to go with him and been allowed 
to do so. We started early in the morning from home, as 
we were going to go on the ice most of the way and draw 
our boat on a sled. The morning on which we started was 
a clear, cold morning in spring. The ice had frozen during 
the night, so we were able to walk on it, drawing our boat 
and provisions without any difiiculty. The woodpeckers 
could be heard drumming on the hollow stubs, and the 
birds were flitting merrily about in the trees, while the crows 
flew in pairs and even in small flocks, calling to each other 
from a distance. Everything seemed to be bus}', and feel- 
ing that one daj- in the spring, on such a morning, was 
worth three in mid-summer ; but before we reached the open 



6i 

water, where we must use our boat, the sun which had 
been filling the whole ea.stern horizon with crimson for 
more than an hour, rose, causing the surface of the ice to 
grind under our feet and the sled runners, like four inches 
of corn, and our march became a tiresome one ; but at last 
with a breath of relief, we reached the open water, and I 
got in the boat and George ran it into the water, springing 
into it with me, as the ice broke under his feet. 

The object of this hunt was to capture two hundred rats, 
which were very plenty around the outlet and up the 
Magalloway. As we reached the shore at the landing by 
the camp, we found that a large spruce tree which had 
stood near the water's edge, and near the path, had fallen 
into the water, blocking the landing. George ran the boat 
into the top and I stepped out on it and held the boat, 
steadying myself all the time in fear of falling into the cold 
water. George stepped out of the boat, made it fast, and 
taking an ax went ashore on the tree, cutting off the 
branches on the upper side of the tree as he went. When 
he reached the shore he called to me to follow which I did, 
though in great fear of falling in, but I reached the shore in 
safety. Then we went up to the camp, and on opening the 
door which had been many times nearly ruined by hedge- 
hogs gnawing their way into the camp, we noticed that they 
had been occupying the camp regularly, and the boxes and 
table and various other articles had been badly damaged 
by them lately. 

George took a surv-ey of things, talking a great deal, very 
much unlike a parson, and finally remarked: " Well, let's 
go down and get a load of stuff from the boat." As we 
emerged from the camp we heard a cracking of brush beside 
the camp, and looking over saw two large hedgehogs hur- 
rying away towards a large tree. " Ah !" exclaimed my 
brother, " Here is the fellows that have been raising h — 1 



62 

with our camp stuif. You go for the gun and I will watch 
them till you get back. I feared very much to venture 
alone on the log, which lay between our boat and the shore, 
but the fear of being called chicken-hearted prevented my 
making any hesitation ; so I turned and ran for the boat ; 
when I reached the shore how far it looked out to the boat, 
and if I should fall in returning with the gun, 1 should 
probably lose it. I wished I was already wet for an excuse 
for not bringing the gun ; but I onl}^ waited a moment be- 
fore I was nervously edging along the log. I had nearh- 
reached the boat and began to gain courage, when I lost 
my balance and went feet first into the ice-cold water. I 
could not swim, and it was some ten feet deep, but I must 
have caught a branch as I went down, for I went ashore 
hand over hand alongside the log, in much less time than 
it takes to tell it. Then all dripping with water I hurried 
up to camp to tell of my accident, which needed no explana- 
tion only that I fell in going instead of coming back with 
the gun. My brother regarded me a moment with a curi- 
ous smile and then said : " Well, you stay here and V II try 
it." And as the hedgehogs had both taken to a tall spruce 
tree, I had only to stand and shivtr a few moments when 
my brother came running back with the gun, and aiming 
at the lower hedgehog, sent a heavy load of No. 2 shot 
through it, bringing it lifeless to the ground. He instantly 
cocked the other barrel and threw it to his shoulder, when 
a thought struck him. Being a kind-hearted fellow, he was 
going to let me shoot the other one to cheer me up. So 
loading the barrel already fired, with a lighter charge than 
wasformerl}' in it, as one of them " old rat charges " would 
have rolled me in the brush, or caused my head and feet to 
change places, he handed it to me, put me in a position 
where I could see my mark which had climbed nearly to the 
top of the spruce, and said : "Now take good aim and I 



63 

guess you '11 fetch him, and do n't be afraid of the gun." I 
accidently cocked the wrong barrel, and looking as smart 
as I could, took aim and fired. I lost the fun of seeing the 
hedgehog come tumbling down through the branches, as I 
was at that time engaged in extracting myself from an old 
spruce top. Fortunately ni}^ brother watched the gun and 
saw where it landed. That was the first hedgehog I ever 
killed, and the first time I was ever laid on my back by the 
recoil of a gun, but by no means the last time. We got a 
fire to going in camp, and I dried ni3' clothes and was once 
more comfortable. 

That night my brother set his gun close by the berth 
where we slept, also having a lamp and matches handy. I 
being ver>' weary with my day's work, slept soundl}', but 
my brother always slept with his ears at half cock. Along 
in the night, when I was sleeping soundly, I was terribly 
startled by a thundering roar from my brother's gun, and 
as I demanded, " what in the world had happened," he 
chuckled a moment and then pointed to a hedgehog which 
just filled the hole in the corner of the door, with his head 
all blown away by the charge of shot. Thus by these and 
other experiences, I may say my brother, George, first 
broke me into the realization that a hunter's life was not 
all cream and honey. 

An old lady stopping at m}' home teaching school, was 
very much frightened one night b}' a hedgehog. She was 
very superstitious, and her imagination was something 
great. She heard something rustling under her window at 
night, and then as the hedgehog began to gnaw on the 
clapboards, supposed it to be a burglar trying to force open 
the window. She was not the only one to hear the gnawing, 
for my brother, George, although asleep in the chamber, had 
heard it, and knowing what it was, arose, drew on his pants. 



64 

and taking his double gun, was creeping around the corner 
to where he could hear the gnawing going on. The old 
lady had about determined to scream ' ' robbers ! ' ' when 
there came a flash and heavy report of a gun, and she at 
once imagined a human being lying under her window, 
bleeding from an ugly wound in the side. She was, how- 
ever, pacified the next morning on finding, instead of a dead 
man, only a little, insignificant hedgehog. 

I was once very much disappointed by an affair which oc- 
curred to me while guiding at Billy Soules'. I was with a 
gentleman named Ostby, and on this particular day, Billy 
was with us at a pond some six hundred yards in diameter. 
We were out in a boat paddling around the outlet, fishing. 
It was a quiet, sunny day in the month of June. The fish 
refused to bite, and we ceased talking and began to look 
for some game. We had been thus occupied perhaps 
twenty minutes when there came a wailing cry from across 
the pond. It commenced in a high key and ran off in 
short, lamenting notes, similar to a young puppy. I had 
never heard a cub bear, but Mr. Ostby had and declared 
that to be one. Billy was also of the same belief, and I 
thought it sounded very much as I should expect a young 
bear to cry when in distress or abandoned by its mother. 
Billy was in the stern with the paddle, I in the middle and 
Mr. Ostby in the bow with a shot gun and alder rod. I 
touched him on the back and said in a whisper, "drop 
your rod overboard." He done so and took up his gun, 
and Billy turned the boat about and paddled noiselessly 
along the shore in the direction of the mysterous sound. 

Occasionally we were guided by the cry which seemed to 
come from a point very near the water's edge, where the 
evergreen trees grew in a dense cluster hanging out over 
the dark waters, entirely obscuring the sun around their 



65 

trunks, leaving a shaded cool place, which seemed a very 
inviting place for a she-bear to lay down, to suckle her cubs. 
As we approached the spot by the skillful paddler, I again 
touched Mr. Ostby, saying, "Cock your gun and make 
ready to shoot, for if that 's a cub, the mother is there too, 
and will be ugly." He drew back both hammers, and I, 
myself, reached around under my left elbow and drew forth 
an old Colt's revolver, observed that it was loaded, and 
holding it in position to shoot, sat straining my eyes into 
the dark space among the tree trunks, expecting every 
moment to see a bear rise to its feet to interview us. We 
had run our boat within fifty feet of the shore, when again 
came the wailing cry, this time very near ; and I heard 
Billy whisper, "Oh fush, do n't. shoot him, you may frighten 
some game." I turned quickly to him and followed his 
eyes, saw a hedgehog sitting on a log which projected out 
into the water, where he had come to take in the beauties 
of the scenery and sing a few airs. I was disgusted beyond 
description, and would have fired on it but for Billy's per- 
sisting again.st it ; however, we left the old fellow undisturbed 
and passed on in sullen silence. 

I once saw a hedgehog swimming in the lake and killed 
it. It had crossed from an island one-fourth mile distant, 
and was near the shore when I saw it. I never knew any 
good to come from a hedgehog, and there is no end to the 
trouble which conies from them in localities where they are 
plenty. Besides their quills and their gnawing of articles 
left around camps, one hedgehog will reduce a shade tree 
to ruin, be it poplar, elm, birch, maple, beech or any other 
hard- wood tree, in one night ; therefore I always expend the 
contents of my revolver on one, wherever I meet it, and 
think I take no charms from these woods by so doing. 



66 



Camp Caribou, Sunday, Dec. 14TH. 
Cloudy and mild ; some wind from the northwest in the 
afternoon. Jim Bragg came with Mr. H. P. Wells and Mr. 
Marston. Mr. Wells stops with us till January second, while 
Mr. Marston returns to his business in a week. I am to 
guide the former, and Alec the latter. We spent the after- 
noon looking over our kit and making preparations. 

Camp Caribou, Monday, Dec. 15TH. 
Quite warm in forenoon, snow slightly sticky. Danforth, 
I and Mr. Wells went over on the Birch Corner line a piece, 
and turned off to the north, crossing Moose Brook, and 
hitting out at the hedgehogs' works, and coming down the 
logging road to the lake ; we saw no signs of game. Had 
dinner in the woods and enjoyed a good tramp. Alec and 
his man had dinner at Beaver Pond. They found one deer 
and run him away. Mr. Wells and I developed some 
plates to-night, which he exposed on his way up j^esterday 
and to-day. Had good success with them. We have pre- 
pared to go to Cupsuptic Pond to-morrow where we hope to 
meet with success and bag a deer. 

Cupsuptic Camp, Tuesday, Dec. i6th. 
Cold and clear to-day. Twelve below zero in the morn- 
ing, but perfectly clear and sunny. We all came over 
here to-day. Took some photographs on the way over. 
Crossed several deer tracks on the waj- over. We arrived 
about two hours before dark. 

Cupsuptic Camp, Wednesday, Dec. 17TH. 

Mr. Wells, Danforth and I started on a hunt this morn- 
ing ; went over in the direction of Gouger's Gulch. The 
weather was quite warm, yet not warm enough to make 
the snow melt. We found some deer and jumped two of 



67 

them; I took the tracks and run them across Arnold's River, 
and about one hour north. I ran and calculate came near 
catching them, but they separated and I lost him. We 
found the snow-shoeing ver}- hard, as our course lay 
through a country which had blown down, and thickly 
sprung up with young firs. Danforth and I took turns at 
breaking ahead. In many places the man ahead, while 
walking over what appeared to be a large knoll, would 
suddenl}' disappear to his armpits, and find he had broken 
through the snow which had covered a thick growth of 
small firs. Then he was obliged to cut the small trees in 
front of him, and tread the snow down to the bottom for 
some distance, to where it would hold him again. Of 
course it was more comfortable for the one in the middle. 
The trees are all loaded very heavy with snow over 
here, causing very many of the slender ones to bow low 
enough to touch their tops to the surface of the snow. 
We found deer tracks in plenty to begin with and then 
worked along in the general directions which they ran. 
They soon began to appear fresher and soon after en- 
tering a growth of maples we found where they had 
been this morning. I brushed the snow from the rifle 
and gave it to Mr. Wells and fell in the rear, where I 
remained watching out as best I could. We overhauled 
them where they stood feeding from a spruce tree which 
had lately fallen. When we reached the place where the}' 
had started, jumping some eight feet at a jump, making a 
hole in the snow about as large as a water-pail, at each time 
they struck, Danforth, who was ahead, and had not spoken 
above a whisper for a space of half an hour, suddenly halted 
and looking at Mr. Wells, with a smile of consolation, said. 
in his usual tone, "There, Mr. Wells, those deer are right 
in the further one of them holes, and the one next to it." 
"Oh, pshaw ! " exclaimed Mr. Wells, handing me the rifle. 



68 

We turned away, and began preparing for a lunch, when I 
expressed a desire to give them chase. It was granted and 
taking a biscuit and the rifle, I lit out after them. On a 
down grade, which I soon reached, I was able to press 
them so hard that they soon separated, which I took to be 
a last resort to escape, as they always do that, knowing 
that only one will be followed ; but although I strained 
every muscle, I did not even get in sight of him. He 
skirted close to Arnold's Bog and the river also. After 
crossing the river, the running was better for him and 
worse for me. He led me through four deer yards, in 
which he ran for some distance, thus getting the advantage 
of me. I gave him up, about one and one-half miles from 
Arnold's Bog. It seemed much longer as I came back. 
On the bog my clothes froze stiff all over me, as they were 
wet with perspiration and melting snow. On arriving at 
camp, I found all there, except Danforth, who had gone up 
the river to look for the beaver. He came, however, before 
I had finished brushing the snow from me. He looked at 
me for a moment, evidently studying my countenance, and 
then broke out, "Where did you leave them?" I told him 
that I left them about three miles this side of Megantic 
Lake. 

Camp Cupsuptic, Thursday, Dec. i8th. 
Warm and snowy early this morning. The snow fell in 
blinding clouds, driven by a heavy north-west wind. Six 
inches fell last night. The weather grew steadily colder 
all day, and the snow continued to fall. We went in search 
of the beaver. They had come down the river, as was in- 
dicated by the trail the)- made through the snow, and 
occasionally a bush cut off. But we could not find where 
they are at present, although we searched the river, below 
the pond, and all the streams entering the pond. 



69 

After we had satisfied ourselves with hunting beaver, 
which we did about two o'clock, we struck for the trail, 
which leads to Arnold's Bog from here. On reaching the 
boundary, we turned to the right to search for an iron post, 
which we knew was planted there. There is supposed to 
be one at ever}- half mile, but we calculate they are planted 
at spaces of not less than two miles. We passed it without 
seeing it, as it was under the snow and showed no mound 
above. Finding, however, that we had passed it, we 
retraced our steps, looking for signs of an ax, as Danforth 
remembered of cutting the alders away from it four or five 
years ago. Soon we found the stub end of an alder, cut by 
an ax, appearing above the snow. We removed our snow- 
shoes and using them for shovels, commenced digging for 
the iron post. At last we found it. I was dispatched after 
the camera which was at camp, and as Mr. Marston had 
remained at camp, since dinner, he accompanied me back 
to take a look at the iron post. Mr. Wells exposed five 
plates on it, each one different from the rest, by having 
one of us, or some snowshoes and a rifle or ax in it. Alec 
was out alone this afternoon, but did not find any game. 
Our camp is warm and nice, even in the coldest of weather, 
quite different from what it was last fall or early this fall, 
before the snow got deep. On the east side of the camp the 
icicles reach from the roof, even to the snow, the whole 
length of the camp. Alec, Danforth and I all sleep in one 
berth, and under one width of blankets. We put Danforth 
in the middle, between us, and lay "spoon fashion," so as 
to keep him nice and warm. Sometimes he struggles and 
complains, and then we know he is suffering with cold and 
we cover his head and lay closer. My legs found consider- 
able fault with me to-day for the work I forced upon them 
yesterday. 



70 

Camp Caribou, Friday, Dkc. iqth. 

Cold, windy and snow}^ as usual. We arose early as 
usual and had a good breakfast, served by Alec as usual. 
After breakfast we talked matters over, and as Mr. Marston 
was obliged to go home on Sunday, next, we concluded 
best to return to Parmachenee to-day. Alec and I took the 
lead, and cumbered with our packs, which were nearly as 
heavy as when we came in, and the newly fallen snow in the 
trail, we had hard work to keep far in advance of our 
sportsmen, who were looked out for bj^ Danforth. The 
frost gathered on Alec's beard in a great quantity. Icicles 
formed on his hair around his forehead. We took turns in 
breaking ahead, but in spite of our exertions Danforth came 
up before we had done scarcely anything at Beaver Pond 
Camp. We made a good fire, and brushed the snow from 
all hands, and soon had things warm and nice inside. We 
had dinner of toasted bread and coffee, brought along in 
our packs from Cupsuptic. Before removing his snow- 
shoes, Mr. Wells took a photograph of the camp, Alec and 
I being at work before it. Alec was unaware of Mr. 
Wells' proceedings and failed to hear the usual "All ready 
now, steady ! " and struck a blow with his ax, spoiling the 
first picture. The second was all right, however. After 
dinner we smoked and talked as long as we liked, then tied 
on our snow-shoes and continued our journey. When we 
came onto the lake the wind struck us with a sharpness 
which caused us to turn away our faces and hurry on. 
Alec and I had just time to brush off our snow before the 
rest of the party arrived. The fire in the office was doing 
its duty when we entered, and soon we were each of us 
spread out all over a chair. 

Camp Caribou, Saturday, Dec. 2oth. 
Clear, sharp and no wind all day. Mr. Wells and I 



71 

worked in the dark room till dinner, developing plates. 
Had very good success with them. It was very interesting 
to me to watch them as the figures came out on them. One 
I had a special interest in. It was mj^ photograph, taken as 
I stood with my revolver in ray hand, but when we developed 
it, there appeared two dark lines across it on a parallel with 
my breast. Danforth said it made me look just exactly as 
though I was guarding a stockade ; but I don't think so. 
After dinner, which was a very good one on account of an 
old stew, the best one I ever tasted, Danforth, I and Mr. 
Wells, put on our snow-shoes to go and visit Little 
Boys' Falls. The water was coming onto the ice rapidly, 
and as we passed over it on the river, it caused a funny 
sensation to come over us, a fear of slipping down or sink- 
ing to the bottom through the wet snow ; either one was 
impossible though . Alec and Mr . M arston had been up ahead 
of us in the forenoon, but the water had come up in his 
tracks, so we could not keep in them all the way. We 
reached the falls and took three views there ; the sun had 
fell so low that our views were all in the shade. On our 
wa)^ down we all three got into the water, wetting our 
snow-shoes several times, causing the ice to form on the 
underside of them rapidly, as we walked until we could 
reach a place where the water had come to the surface and 
froze ; here we would halt and knock the ice off, and go on. 
Before we reached the lake the sun, which had been shin- 
ing constantly all day, had disappeared behind the Parma- 
chenee Boquet, and as we came from the cut-off down t* 
the camp, we witnessed as pretty sunset as I ever saw, 
without any clouds. The whole western horison, clear 
around to the south-east, was tinged with every color from 
light 3'ellow to dark blue, and there are many shades be- 
tween the two. As we arrived at camp the teams, which 
take Mr. Marston out to the settlement in the morning. 



72 

arrived. Mr. Wells, after thinking for some time in silence 
this evening, remarked : " I believe it is harder work to 
travel on a lake or river than it is to go through the woods." 
I informed him that it was much harder, though no one 
could understand why it should be until after trying it 
once. Every step being exactly like the rest, makes it 
very tiresome, though any one can make more rapid pro- 
gress for a few miles on a lake than he can crooking and 
dodging through the trees. I calculate that ten hours of 
walking on the lake would make the toughest man alive as 
tired, i. e. leg weary, as the tiredest. Yet any one accus- 
tomed to snow-shoeing can go ten hours through the woods 
on comparatively good snow-shoeing and come in fresh 
and hearty. 

I remember of coming in one night quite hearty, though 
not so fresh as I might have been had I not been so very 
hearty. I was in company with Billy Soule in the spring 
of 1888, about the middle of March. We were trapping for 
beaver on the Cupsuptic River, some twelve or fifteen miles 
above Camp Parmachenee. We had a small camp located 
here in a convenient place, with an open fire in the center. 
The morning to which I refer was a regular spring morning, 
cold and frosty, the snow was crisp and very eas}^ to pass 
over. We started before sunrise, as is the custom at this 
season of the year, to look over some new country further 
up the river, than we had been. So rapid did we press on, 
that before the sun had thawed the crust any, we had put 
several miles between us and our camp. At noon we fell 
a tree, which grew near the river brink, on to the ice and 
sitting down on this, ate a lunch consisting of a few cold 
flap-jacks and meat. After this we again continued our 
march up stream with some intentions of going to Arnold's 
Bog. This idea, however, was soon given up, and having 



73 

found three families of beavers, and set all the traps we 
had along with us, we turned to retrace our steps to camp. 
It was after twelve o'clock when we turned back, and the 
surface of the snow was soaking full of water, the coarse 
snow yielded six inches at every step. Our feet were as 
wet as they could be, and our snow-shoes three times the 
weight they were when we started out in the morning. 
Step by step we urged ourselves on, once in a while saying 
to each other, "Just think of that stack of flap-jacks we are 
going to have for supper." We were both ravenous 
hungry^, and began to make plans for supper before we were 
within a mile of camp. Our cvistom was for one to fry flap- 
jacks for the other till he was full and then change, and the 
other fry for the first man. I said as I glanced at the fast 
falling shadows in the valle3^s, and noted that we should be 
very late to camp, I said " I '11 tell you what I '11 do, Billy, 
when we reach camp, and get a good fire going, I '11 fry for 
you first, till you are full, if it takes me till midnight to fill 
you up, and then you just fry for me till I say enough, and 
you will do well." " No sir," exclaimed Billy, " I '11 fry 
for 3'ou till you say enough, and then you can take your 
time to cook for me. ' ' 

Thus we disputed as we walked on, and came as near 
quarreling as we ever did, and finally reached camp, after 
dark, aching in every limb. We soon had a cheerful fire 
crackling at the chimne3\ and the figures danced on the 
walls. We both made for the dough pan and the dispute 
begun fresh to see who should eat last. Billy being the 
oldest and firm in his determination to first cook while I ate, 
I gave in, consenting to eat first, but first remarking, that I 
would make it sweet for him before he got to his supper. 
The fry-pan smoked, Billy shouted and threw the flap-jacks 
high in the air catching them again in the pan as they fell, 
and when they were cooked to a nice brown on both sides, 



74 

turned them out into my plate, saying as he did so, " Ha, 
here 's a good one for j'ou, Dan ! put it into you ! plenty 
more where it come from ! ' ' and again he would cover the 
pan with a batter of thin dough. As I calmly drove my 
fork through the eighth flap-jack and carried it to my mouth, 
Billy's jovial spirit began to fag. He no longer shouted, 
" Here you go, Dan! I'll have another ready when that 
disappears ! " but instead would simply turn them out, in 
my plate, on my legs or even the ground beside me, without 
a word, and quietly commence another. While I was 
buttering the eleventh one, which, like all its companions, 
was the full size of the fry-pan, he glanced into the dough- 
dish and drew a long breath. I thought it about time to 
quit, beside I thought I had given him a sufficient punish- 
ment. Not a word had been spoken for ten minutes, 
although our — my supper I should say, had begun with 
laughter and many jokes. As he carelessly let the twelfth 
one fall on the ground between us I remarked in a cool, 
steady tone, "There Billy, that will do for me to-night." 
In answer he adopted the same tone with which I addressed 
him, only a trifle more low and sullen, and growled out, 
' ' It won't will it ? " To clear awaj^ all chances of any hard 
feelings I burst into a wild fit of laughter, in which Billy 
joined, and soon I was seated, fry-pan in hand, tossing the 
smoking flap-jacks in the air, while Billy ate his fill, and 
we finished our day by smoking the pipe of peace. 

Camp Caribou, Sunday, Dec. 2ist. 
Cold and clear at daybreak this morning, but along the 
eastern horizon were long, black clouds ; as the sun arose 
it soon disappeared, and the clouds grew thicker. Mr. 
Marston took an early start for Berlin this morning, but 
as the road is bad on account of the recent snow, he wall 
probably spend two whole days in reaching there. Mr. 



75 

Wells took about twenty photographs and views to-day. 
We curtained the office windows and worked in there. He 
had some bad luck with the portraits on account of it being 
so dark. I made some peanut candy after supper. Snow 
began to fall at three o'clock p. m. The weather has 
moderated and a foot of snow is quite possible. Alec went 
up to the Black Pond trail as far as the upper dam and left 
a load of kerosene and other imperishable things, cutting 
the brush as he went. He carried his revolver for the first 
time, and shot a partridge and squirrel. His trail will be 
a great help to us when we go to Black Pond, which we 
shall probably do soon after the arrival of F. S. Billings. 

Camp Caribou, Monday, Dec. 22ND 
Snowy and wind}' all day ; warm in the morning but 
colder before night. Jim Bragg came with S. F. Billings 
and David Billings. They arrived early and in good con- 
dition. Mr. Wells didn't venture into the woods to-day, 
but took several interior pictures, giving them from four 
minutes to one hour exposure, with good result. I received 
four letters to-night, two from my sisters and one from some 
one else's sister. I got tired of the office to-day and 
wanted to go away in the woods. I thought of the differ- 
ence between this winter and three years ago, when I was 
gathering spruce gum for the market. Spruce gum is 
gathered either in the early fall, before the snow has fallen 
to a depth to make traveling very hard, or else in March, 
when snow-shoeing is very good. Although much of the 
gum is under snow and can not be got in the spring, so 
much more country can be taken in in a da}^ which is 
much longer in spring than fall, that, on the whole, I can 
gather more gum in spring on snow-shoes than in fall on 
bare ground. A man with experience can average forty 
pounds per day. The quality consists of all that grows on 



76. 

spruce trees of the gum or pitch kind, with a good supply 
of bark, and is called "barrel" or "rough gum," and sells 
at from four to seven cents per pound. From loo pounds 
of barrel gum may be sorted one and one-half pounds of 
clear gum, which sells at from thirty cents to one dollar 
per pound. This kind of gum may seem to be the kind 
that pays best, but on the contrary, it does not pa}' to pick 
out the finest quality as the barrel gum will bring a cent 
more a pound with it in. The gum grows, usually, in a 
crack in the trees, which extends from the ground up, 
sometimes the whole length of the tree, but usually not 
above ten feet. It also appears where a tree has been in- 
jured by another falling against it or on account of having 
been "blazed " or " spotted " with the ax. 

The very finest quality of clear gum appears on the 
bark of the spruce, coming out and hanging down like 
thick molasses, being very transparent and hard to see, as 
it appears where no wound has been inflicted on the tree. 
In the case of "seam gum", the farther up the gum runs 
the better the quality. Very little if any clear gum is 
found less than five feet above the ground. Gum must 
be gathered in cold weather, when it is brittle, and will not 
stick together. The method of gathering it is very simple. 
One has an axe of good weight and length of handle, and 
a bag or knap-sack on his back, and a catching bag in his 
hand. This bag is usually made from an ordinan* meal- 
bag cut off at the middle with a hoop sewed into it to keep 
it open. The advantage this arrangement has over a tin 
pan or pail is, first, when not in use, it can be carried in 
the hand carelessly, without danger from spilling its con- 
tents ; second, it does not catch any snow while being 
carried through the woods, as it falls from the bushes. 
When the gathering bag is filled, its contents are looked 
over, and the largest pieces of bark thrown out, and then 



77 

emptied into the pack. Not much time is expended 
picking out bark and sticks in the woods. It is generally 
sorted out thorough!}- after it has been carried to camp. 
Of course there are man}' wet and snowy days to be 
contended with, and a gummer can use his own judgment 
as to whether it is going to pay him better to work hard 
and suffer exposure, than to lay in camp and take care of 
himself, and lose his time. 

I once gummed with a fellow that would gather and 
bring in thirty or forty lbs. twice a day. He used an 
instrument similar in appearance to a large tunnel, with a 
rounded chisel fastened to one edge, and a jointed handle 
in the snout. With this he could reach gum twenty feet 
above his head. I never tried an arrangement of that kind, 
but it seems very good for collecting a finer quality of gum. 
A large quantity of the finer quality is collected by lumber- 
men during the winter. Farm boys also gather it, as a 
method of obtaining a little pocket money, and having a 
good time in the woods. Near where I used to live, and 
where I was born, lived an old lady, who must have been 
over fifty years of age, who used to pick gum at quite an 
extent. Once she got lost and wandered till nearly night, 
when discovering her situation, she sat down on a log, drew 
out her pipe, and after filling and lighting it, commenced 
shouting at intervals, till some one at my home hearing her, 
went to her aid, and led her home. 

The clear gum is sold pure just as it is bought at the 
retail country stores, but the rough or barrel gum is put 
through a series of refinement before being used. I Avas 
taken into an apartment and shown where one year's 
har\'est of gum, gathered by myself, was refined. There 
was a box which would hold two hundred pounds of gum. 
It was shaped something like a hopper, being nearly square, 
one end being narrower than the other, and the bottom 



78 

sloping towards the narrow end. In the bottom was a wire 
screen two inches from the bottom. A hole was cut in the 
narrow end close down to the bottom of the box. Into this 
box was run a steam pipe, one inch in diameter, the other 
end being attached to a tightly covered kettle on an arch 
or furnace. The wire screen was covered with a la^er of 
spruce boughs, and the gum after being washed in cold 
water to remove everything that would float, was turned in 
and covered with a tight cover. A barrel was set under 
the hole in the box, to catch the gum as it melted and run 
out, and the steam turned on. The steam pipe entering 
the bottom of the box, would melt the gum and cause it to 
flow down through the boughs, which would strain out all 
particles, allowing only the clear gum to run into the barrel, 
which when cool was solid like rosin. This was shipped to a 
firm in Portland who gave fifteen cents per pound for it, and 
this firm, after putting it through a process known probably 
only to themselves, turned it out wrapped in paper, in small 
cakes, each containing one chew, which if sold at one cent 
each, would give them an enormous profit. 

I know a gentleman who has bought gum in and around 
my native town for years. He tries it out and, while still 
hot, pours it over a smooth surface of marble, cuts it into 
squares, wraps each square, by itself, in a neat-labelled 
paper, and sells it out in different cities of New England, 
and makes much money by the operation. It seems to me 
as though chewing gum must be ver}' rare in some of the 
western states, and that a sale might be worked up there 
so as to make gumming more of a business. One man 
which I sold gum to, sent a sample to a firm in Nebraska, 
asking what price he would paj' for gum of that grade, and 
received a reply that he did not know what it was, and if 
the sample which was sent to him was pure gum. 



79 

Camp Caribou, Tuesday, Dec. 23RD. 
Sunny and mild to-day. Danforth, I and Mr. Wells 
went over to Cal. Johnson's logging works to get some 
pictures and ideas for Mr. Wells to write an article on. 
We got a sable at Birch Corner, where Alec killed his doe. 
We struck lyittle Black Cat and soon after crossing came 
into a two-sled road, which we followed up among some 
yards, and after looking them over and taking some pict- 
ures of them, took a road and followed it up to the camp. 
We reached camp just after the crew had left after dinner, 
forty-five men. Hither they had eat everything eatable in 
camp, or else there never was anything. The camps were 
built new last fall, but they were the toughest in appearance, 
on the inside, that I ever saw. They were well furnished 
with stov'CS and blankets, but I do n't think the men's 
camp had been swept since the day it was built. Mr. 
Wells saw the lumber yards and two-horse teams drawing 
logs, but I had no time to go up where the choppers were 
at work. We arrived here late in the afternoon, to find 
the lake and island well tracked over with snow-shoes, 
where Billings had been practicing. W^e made prepara- 
tions to go to Lower Black Pond to-morrow. John Olson 
came to guide David Billings. 

lyOWER Black Pond, Wednesday, Dec. 24TH. 
We spent considerable time packing up this morning. 
We loaded our knapsacks and rifles on a sled and Olson, 
Alec and 1 drew it. The rest of the party strung out be- 
hind. The wind cut down the lake, making our beards 
white with ice and frost, and stimulating us to activity. 
The walking was good on snow-shoes on the lake and 
river, and we threw lemons at each other at times as we 
passed on. When we reached the branch we set up our 
sled in the snow and took our knapsacks on our backs. 



8o 

Our packs were not above the usual weight and we made 
good time. The trail, made by Alec lately, was a great 
help. When we reached the upper gate dam, which we 
did soon after noon, we guides, who were ahead, began 
preparing for a fire and luncheon. I dug a tea pail and 
cups out of the snow, and we shoveled a hole for the fire 
and for the sportsmen to set in. Dry wood was very plenty 
and soon after all hands arrived we had a brisk fire burn- 
ing. Coffee was prepared and bread toasted and we took 
a good lunch. Mr. Wells photographed the scene after 
lunch was over, and we started on. When we reached the 
end of Alec's trail, which was one and one-half miles from 
camp, Danforth, who had a light load, came to the front 
and broke all the way to camp. Some of the boys were 
quite tired until they saw the camp. Mr. Wells and F. S. 
Billings took pictures before we unpacked or took off our 
snow-shoes. Plenty of wood was in camp. We shoveled 
the snow all away from the door-yard and banked the camp 
up to its eaves with the snow, which is four feet deep. 
We soon had our outside leggings off and drying, and the 
camp was warm and nice. Fried steak, bread and syrup, 
with tea, butter and sugar, made our supper. Early in 
the evening we began making preparations to relieve Santa 
Claus of the most of his load. Seven pair of long stock- 
ings were pinned together and thrown over a pole, which 
lay on the collar beams of our camp. There were no end 
to the talk and jokes at the expense of old Santa. Soon 
after the light was extinguished a few dusky forms could 
be seen moving around our stockings and considerable 
paper and birch bark rustling. 

Lower Black Pond, Thursday, Dec. 25TH. 
Cold and sharp this morning. We overhauled our 
stockings the first thing after camp was warmed. They 



contained chiefly kindling-wood and birch bark, but I had 
two cigars and a watch and five dollar bill. Alec and 
Olson had each a five dollar bill, cigars, some candy. 
Each article was thoroughly discussed and its merits all 
settled and declared to be " just what I wanted ' ' before 
another was removed. Danforth had an imitation clock 
filled with candy and a bottle of "Hood's Sarsaparilla." 
The sportsmen each had a mink skin, well tanned, besides 
Mr. Wells had a case of eighteen lead pencils and a fish- 
hook large enough to catch a cod-fish on. A weasel skin 
appeared in Frank Billings' stocking and a fine cigar cut- 
ter. After we had all been to breakfast Alec and I were 
sent to look for deer and kill one, if possible. Alec left in 
the direction of Cupsuptic Pond, with rifle and snow-shoes, 
so I went in the direction of Black Pond. I was aware of 
the presence of a cold breeze as I hurried across the pond. 
I entered the woods at the upper end of the pond and struck 
off west. I tramped through maple swamps and along a 
hard-wood hill for a long time, and then, as I entered a 
vast track of dead-wood, stretching away to westward and 
down hill, I turned more south. I wandered awhile in a 
cedar swamp without seeing any deer signs, and then lit 
out south to cross the branch and go over around Sable 
Ridge. I had got into the valley of the branch and could 
see across onto Sable Ridge, when I saw a good deer track. 
He was ploughing quite a furrow most of the way, and go- 
ing west. I at once turned and began following him at a 
good brisk walk. Sometimes he jumped and ran a few 
rods, but most of the time he walked and I could see that 
snow was up to his belly. 

After going thus for about one-half mile, I jumped him 
out from under a spruce top where he was laying. As soon 
as I found his tracks were jumping regular, I put my hand 
into the snow in them and finding them fresh, and knowing 



82 

I had really started him, I broke into a run. He kept 
about the same elevation running west, and keeping 
among spruce trees as much as possible, where the snow 
was the thinnest. In about three minutes as usual my wind 
gave out. The cold air choked me and made my teeth 
ache, as I was obliged to breathe through my mouth to get 
air, and even then it seemed as though I must suffocate. 
This however lasted but a few moments, and I got ni}- 
second wind. The sweat began to start all over me and I 
pulled the throttle- valve wide open and charged on regard- 
less. I had a bet with F. S. Billings in the morning, of 
twenty-five dollars, that I would run down and kill a deer 
less than fifteen minutes from the time I started him, and 
I put on all the steam possible, at the first end of the chase. 
I studied the track that my game left and it promised very 
good luck in less than fifteen minutes if I didn't break a 
snow-shoe. Sometimes he was stuck for a moment in an 
old brush-pile, but most of the time he made about eight 
feet at a jump. The longer I ran, the better I felt, and 
on a down grade I endeavored to jump a log without los- 
ing any headway, and in doing so I caught my snow-shoe 
sending me head-first ino the soft snow some ten feet down 
the hill. I was up and off, having no spare time or 
breath to compliment that log with. 

I had looked at my watch soon after starting, and my 
hopes ran high, as I noted the crooks and sudden tacks 
my deer was making. The first thing I saw of it was the 
steam of its breath floating off in the sunlight, the back- 
ground being dark, but soon after I caught a glimpse of the 
deer itself. With all my remaining strength I made a spurt 
up a hill, a few yards and saw my game buried in the snow 
about twenty-five yards away, struggling to get through a 
pile of brush. I instantly fired behind its shoulder and 
put a stop to its running. It was a good large doe and had 



83 

warmed me up in good shape. After walking around it for 
a moment and getting my breath, I dug a hole in the snow, 
put in some boughs and laid the deer on them all .straight, 
as I was told not to put a knife into it if I got one, but keep 
it for a subject to photograph. So I covered it first with 
boughs and then snow, and struck out for camp as fast as I 
could. I had caught her in twelve minutes, and as it was 
only twelve o'clock, I hoped to reach camp in season for 
Mr. Wells to come out with his camera that day and get 
his pictures. But I was further awaj^ than I anticipated, 
and I came into the trail where it leaves the two- sled route, 
about two miles from camp. From this point to where I 
left the deer is not very far. Took me about five minutes 
to sail down, but sailing down and climbing up on snow- 
shoes is two different things. 

I got to camp as quick as I could, to find Alec skinning 
a deer which he had drawn in, also. He got his quicker 
than I did mine. He either run faster than I did or else 
the deer didn't run so fast. It was a little buck. Dan- 
forth passed out his "Hood's Sarsaparilla " before I got 
my snow-shoes off. Great excitement reigned in camp 
to-night, which Alec and I did not try to lessen. Alec 
had shot one deer, and there was another running ahead of 
it which he did not tr}^ to get; and I had seen another deer 
between where I killed one and where I came into the 
trail. It was a small one, but I run it down in less than 
five minutes and passed by it, leaving it standing in snow 
up to its chin, as I had no desire to kill it, nor need of its 
meat. I let it live, thinking it would be a good target for 
.some of the sportsmen to-morrow. F. S. Billings called it 
my little pet fawn that I was going out to kill to-morrow. 
The boys caught a good .string of fish up to the pond 
to-day, fifty-two in number. It was so late when I got to 
camp that we postponed any further work till to-morrow. 



84 

Black Pond, Friday, Dec. 26th. 
Cold and sharp. Danforth, I and Mr. Wells started out 
on my buck tracks to the scene of my hunt yesterday and 
to give Mr. Wells a shot, too, if possible. The rest of the 
party went after the deer that Alec let go. When we 
reached the place where I run by my second deer, there 
were plenty of fresh tracks going through the woods in all 
directions, some of them made by a very large deer. I 
had the camera and our lunch on my back and a rifle in my 
hand, so I stayed back with Mr. Wells and let Danforth 
mouse around. We could see him every few minutes, as 
he followed up one road and down another, searching the 
trails carefully for a fresh track. In a few minutes he 
struck the tracks of a big deer that had gone off up the hill, 
clearing the snow ten feet at a jump, although it was nearly 
four feet in depth. Danforth turned partl}^ around, beck- 
oned us to follow, and then disappeared, going at an easy 
run up the hillside, on the trail of that unfortunate deer. 
I did not quicken my pace any knowing that Mr. Wells 
could not stand it, but picking out the best walking to be 
had, and breaking down now and then a branch, or kicking 
the snow off the logs, which we stepped over, I kept steadily 
on. I took advantage of all the cut offs I could, going 
across the corners, whenever there was a sudden turn in the 
pursuer and the pursued. Soon our deer came to the trail 
which me and my deer made yesterday, and followed it for 
nearly one-half mile, this gave both Danforth and his game 
better running, and they scored first-rate. I could study 
the tracks, and tell about how the chase was getting along. 
I soon found that the deer was an uncommonly large one 
and was being hard pressed. He would amble along easily 
when the big spruces were thick, in order to get rest, and 
then when he reached open growth where the snow was 
deepest, he would let out with all his might, as in doing so 



85 

he reached bottom at each bound, and could therefore jump 
again. But whenever he missed bottom he was obliged to 
wallow through, to where he could get another start. But 
where was Johnny all this time, let me ask ? Johnny had 
not walked a step since he first started, that 1 could see by 
his tracks, and he kept leaving them as far apart as when 
he started. In one place another deer came into line 
behind Danforth and run on his snow-shoe track for some 
distance in front of Mr. Wells and I forming a procession of 
fiv^e. In about an hour from the time we commenced the 
chase, we came to a good down grade. Here apparently, 
both deer and man gained courage, they certainly gained 
headway. At times it looked as if it was too good running 
for the game, and then his jumps would become verj- close 
together. It was getting past noon and we had been going 
directly away from camp, nearly all the time. I suspected 
Mr. Wells was becoming tired, and perhaps a little discour- 
aged, when we saw Danforth coming back towards us. 
We stopped and hailed him, " Hallo, he is a tough one 
ain't he?" "Yes," replied Danforth, " but come on, I 
got him pretty well cooked down here, he has stopped run- 
ning, and I can't drive him with clubs." We followed 
him nearly one-half mile, and then saw the head and ears 
of a big deer, looking at us over a knoll. Mr. Wells took 
the rifle and shot him through the head. It was as large a 
buck as I ever saw, but he had shed his horns some 
time ago. We took two photographs of him, and then I 
began to skin him, while Danforth prepared and built a 
good fire. I had him nicely dressed as soon as Danforth 
had finished cutting wood, and Mr. Wells eating his lunch. 
Danforth and I ate our lunch and warmed ourselves and 
lighted our pipes, then as Mr. Wells set on the hide and 
Danforth stood by the fire, I got oif a proper distance and 
took a picture of the whole thing. We hung up the 



86 

meat, and taking the hide only, turned our steps toward 
camp. We walked an hour and then hit the two-sled road 
almost in sight of the upper dam. Nothing more occurred 
worth mentioning, till we got about one-half mile from 
camp, and there we saw where the boys had come into the 
trail drawing a deer. On reaching camp we found them 
all within, and all had met with success. Both Frank and 
David Billings had killed a deer. We could make camp 
as hideous as we wanted to to-night, but the hideous part 
was all mine last night. Olson, Alec and I slept under 
the same set of blankets. I in the middle. The water 
ran down on the logs beside Olson, and he crowded 
away. Alec was afraid of hurting Mr. Wells, who had a 
boil on his back, so he braced away from him. I stood 
it till after twelve o'clock and then waking up for the fif- 
teenth time, I found I was wedged in tighter than a brick 
in the pavement. I struggled desperately, and as soon as 
I got a little above the centre, I bounced up about two feet 
and my two friends who had tried so hard to keep me warm 
came together with a slap. I slept in a chair the remainder 
of the night and kept fire which was very comfortable. 

Camp Caribou, Saturday, Dec. 27TH. 
Seven inches of snow fell last night. Wind blowed 
to-day, but it was not ver)^ cold. Mr. Wells and I started 
about nine o'clock p. m. to come out to Caribou on account 
of the camp being crowded too much. Alec and J. Olson 
came part way with us to get the meat that we all killed 
yesterday. I went up to my deer with Alec to show him 
where it was and Olson went along with Mr. Wells till he 
came to where we came into the two-sled road yesterda}' 
after Wells shot his buck, and then branched off after that 
meat. After showing Alec my deer I hurried off after Mr. 
Wells, but did not overtake him till he nearly reached 



87 

where the trail passes near the branch the Canada tote 
road crosses it. Here I came up with him and took the 
lead. My pack only weighed about thirty-five pounds. 
It was more tiresome on the river and lake than in the 
woods. We saw where tw^o deer had crossed the river a 
short distance above L,ittle Boys' Fall. We hesitated 
about following them, but being hungry and some tired, 
gave it up. They crossed this morning, going east. 
Reached camp about three o'clock p. m. Spent the remain- 
der of the day developing plates. The photographs of our 
big buck was all three first rate, but we got a double 
exposure on the camp some way, and .spoiled it. Mr. 
Wells was much disappointed about it, as he wanted a pict- 
ure of the camp. 

Camp Caribou, Sunday, Dec. 28th. 
Cold and windy all day. We did not venture out nor 
take an}' photographs. Spent the day mending Mr. Wells' 
moccasins and finishing his plates. The mercur}' fell from 
four above at three p. M. to twelve below at dark, promise 
of a cold morning to-morrow. The snow blew in clouds on 
lake all day and the air was filled wath frost. The sun 
could be seen at times like a flap-jack in a fry-pan after 
dark, but such visits were not very frequent and of short 
duration. I did not like sitting in the office all day and 
we planned to go for those deer that crossed the river above 
the falls yesterday morning. 

Camp Caribou, Monday, Dec. 29TH. 

Twent3'-one below zero at five this morning, but grew 
warmer rapidly as the sun rose and a fine snow set in. We 
started, not very early, for up river. Spent considerable 
time on the wa3^ Had lunch at the place where the deer 
crossed river. I cut down a good, dry fir stub, which 



made a good fire. We had coffee as usual, with plenty of 
pastry, and after eating our fill, hung our knapsack on a 
branch and, taking the rifle and ax, crossed the river and 
went off on the trail of the two deer. The best we could 
do we was obliged to pass through as bad traveling as I 
ever saw, all up and down .steep hills. The thick firs on 
the hillsides supported the snow some five or eight feet 
above the ground, making it appear smooth enough, but 
in walking out on it we would sink sometimes out of sight 
in it. Our snow-shoes would tip up, and down we would 
go, and once down it was very hard to climb back on top 
again. The vallej^s were a swamp of alders and the ridges 
on top thickly grown with cherry-trees and old spruce 
tops. On one occasion I went back to assist Mr. Wells, 
who had broken through and gone to his arm-pits, when, 
as I gave him a lift, I went in, also, far down among the 
brush, and we struggled there in a pile for some time, 
before getting our snow-shoes straightened out and beat- 
ing the snow down to enable us to climb out. 

We, however, found and jumped our game at two o'clock. 
I hesitated about beginning a chase so late in the day, not 
knowing where or how it would end ; but finalh' the temp- 
tation was too strong, and I sailed into them. They did 
not run as I would have had them run, could I have chosen 
the kind of traveling myself, but I came in sight of both of 
them in less than five minutes. They both disappeared 
soon, and turned and crossed their tracks. I pressed them 
as hard as I could in such awful doing and in a short time 
overhauled the smaller one stuck in a hole among the firs, 
I returned and met Mr. Wells and together we went back 
to where I left the deer. He was in a hole in the snow 
among the firs, which was six or eight feet deep. Mr. 
Wells got up on a mound of snow to shoot and the deer 
started again to run. Wells levelled his rifle and just as 



he was aboiit to fire he broke through among those treach- 
erous firs and sank to his shoulders. Before I could help 
him out the bird had flown, and with a howl I once more 
gave chase. The largest deer had branched off before I 
came up with this one, and I had noticed her tracks. In 
about ten minutes I once more came up with my slipper5^ 
long-legged " want-him-bad " and, as before, he had fallen 
through the snow in a clump of firs. 

I kept back and begun to fill my pipe. Mr. Wells came 
up some out of breath, and stationing him near where the 
deer had entered the snow, which was high above its ears, 
I went around to start him back where he would make a good 
shot. He came back out of his hole, but did not stop, but 
bounced off on his back-track as fast as he could. Mr. Wells 
fired at close range as he run by him, but missed. He fired 
again after he had got off some seventy-five yards, missing 
also. I was disgusted this time as I might have stopped him 
as well as not had I supposed he would not give Mr. Wells 
a better shot, or even had I thought he could get awa}' b}- 
any means with a 44-magazine rifle at play on him. It was 
now getting late, after three o'clock, and I thought it time 
to quit, but Mr. Wells wanted him now anyway, so I gave 
another chase, but he had got onto a deer- road and was 
making good time, so I gave him up for to-day and went 
back and met Mr. Wells, and we having lost track of our- 
selves, took a west course for the river. The walking was 
not much better on the way out. We wallowed and 
climbed and cut brush for some time, and after crossing the 
tote road came out at Cleveland's eddy, not far from where 
we left our pack at lunch. 

We wasted no time, knowing that dark would come be- 
fore we reached camp, but made as good headway as pos- 
sible. The recent snows has caused the water to come on 
the ice quite a good deal ; we felt it squash as we walked 



90 

over it, and in some places got our snow-shoes wet. I had 
to watch out sharp for the snow-shoe tracks from the cut-off 
down to camp, on account of the darkness, but we came in, 
Mr. Wells not so tired as I expected he would be. We 
determined to-night to give them same deer another try to- 
morrow. I do n't think the traveling where they were 
headed is any better than it was where we caught them, 
but I am sure it can 't be any worse. I was rather in- 
clined to laugh at it at first, as we went after them as much 
for a pastime as anything else, but after the chase com- 
menced in earnest I got over my laughing. It is very 
laughable to think of things that when they were happen- 
ing were of the most serious nature, but happened to turn 
out all right, and an\' one having had experiences of that 
kind generally prize them very high in years later on. I 
have had some tough times ; most of them where my life 
was really in peril was on the ice or in a boat. I never 
came very near freezing, starving or getting shot, but for 
one that has been on the ice as much as I have been, and 
treacherous ice too, and in storms at both day and night, 
being in my younger days of a slender build, not possess- 
ing the usual physical powers of most boys at that age, 
what in the world ever kept me from taking a daN^'s bath 
under water is a mystery to me. 

I remember one affair that I took an active part in, that 
came out rather better than most of my frolics did. It was 
Nov. 1 6th, 1882, and I awoke that morning where I lay 
under the shelter of a rubber blanket at the mouth of Rapid 
River, on Umbagog I^ake. I had the daj^ before been 
engaged in taking up traps, which were scattered along the 
east shore of the lake and up Rapid River. I had a few 
mink and having reached my camping ground after dark, 
made only the rudest show of a camp. On this morning 
as I crawled out of my tent, I took in my situation in a 



91 

few moments. It was freezing cold, the north-west winds 
were blowing the lake into foam, and I had many traps on 
the Magalloway and Androscoggin Rivers, that must be 
taken up that day, or else be frozen in, for I was sure the 
rivers would freeze up as soon as the wind went down. 
Three miles lay between me and the outlet, which must be 
crossed before any more traps could be taken up, and the 
wind would be dead ahead all the way. I stood a moment 
looking out on the turbulent waters and saw the waves go 
sweeping past, for I was in the windiest part of the lake, 
when the wind is north-west. I set to work preparing my 
breakfast, and when it was finished, once more looked over 
the lake and concluded I would wait a spell, and see if the 
wind would not go down. I waited, but on the contrary it 
rather became stronger. So loading my kit into my boat 
that lay turned over on the rocks, I launched forth, and 
heading into the wind, commenced the battle. 

I had been unfortunate enough this morning to burn the 
palms of both my mittens, and I took pains to keep the 
edges tucked under between the oars and my hands. My 
boat was a ill modeled concern and behaved badly in 
the wind and waves ; besides this there was about one 
hundred pounds of ice froze into it, my oars began to grow 
large with ice, and the waves beat me back at times. But 
I kept steadily at work and made slow headway. I was 
probably two hours going the three miles but the last part 
of the trip was much easier than the first on account of the 
wind blowing off the land making less waves. I entered 
the river and pulled down towards the dam. Before reach- 
ing Mall's carry, I passed through ten rods of thin ice, as 
I did so thought it would be difficult to do on my way back 
at night, if the weather held as cold as it was then. I first 
went up the Magalloway to those traps, and I hauled them 
in clogs and all, whether they had anything in them or not. 



92 

About noon a snow set in, and I suffered with cold a great 
deal. I hurried to take up all my traps on the Magalloway 
and when this was done I turned down stream, making as 
much headway, for I must either reach home that night or 
be froze out and go home by land, a thing which would 
have been very difficult for me then. As I rowed away 
down stream my eyes caught sight of an object apparently 
swimming down around the bend far behind me. I paused 
and looked, and although there was no shape to it or any- 
thing that looked like anything I ever saw before, I soon 
concluded it was game and I wanted it. So running my 
boat in shore close up to the bank I made it fast and taking 
my gun sat down to watch the mysterious object. At times 
it seemed about to land, sometimes on one bank and then 
on the other, it was paddling along in the most careless 
manner. As it approached nearer I could distinguish the 
bab, bab, bab, of it at each stroke, and I put buck shot in 
my gun. As it came abreast of me, it suddenly took the 
form of a deer's head and standing up in boat making noise 
enough to cause it to raise its head, I fired one bar- 
rel at it and I don't remember seeing a shot strike the 
water. My sudden appearance caused the deer to turn tail 
and go for the opposite shore. T stood bewildered at 
missing such a mark at so short a distance, and I dare not 
risk the other barrel at the head, I will wait till it is climb- 
ing out of the water and then go for a body wound. It 
soon reached the opposite bank, and dropping its head 
began slowly to rise out of the water. I let the other bar- 
rel go with careful aim. The deer made a great bound up 
the bank and fell dead. 1 went across as quick as I could, 
fairly wild with excitement and joy. I found it to be a very 
large doe. It gave me a very hard tussle to drag it down 
the bank and into the boat. It was my first deer. Before 
this I was shivering with cold, my feet and hands nearly 



93 

frozen, but now all at once I am aware both feet and hands 
are throbbing and burning with heat, and I can stand any- 
thing now ; and I grasp the oars with fresh vigor, and 
feeling to have the strength of a giant. 

Reaching the mouth of the Magalloway I leap out, drag 
out my deer which, as yet, has not had a knife in it, then 
getting in pull down towards the dam. When I leave the 
boat to go for a trap, I run at the top of my speed. I 
reached the forks where I left my deer just as the shades 
of night were beginning to fall. Again I loaded my prize 
into my boat and pulled for the lake. The only thing that 
troubled me was the ice above Moll's Carry. It had grow^n 
cold all day, and the snow was falling fast and the wind 
high and coming in gusts. As my boat ground into the 
ice I saw I was in a scrape, for it was too thick to break 
and too thin to draw over. I worked twenty minutes 
thinking it might be thinner further in, but gave it up and 
pulled for Moll's Carry, which was a carry of about two 
hundred yards in width, but saving a mile's row. My 
boat was so heavy with ice that it gave me a hard tussle, 
but I got it across after a while and then came the traps, 
blankets, buckets of grub, axe, gun and last the deer, 
which run like grease over the snow^ and ice. When all 
was over it was pitch dark, as dark as any night without a 
moon and ver}' cloudy. 1 ate some bread, although I did 
not like it, but knew^ it would help me in rowing. I 
thought of camping, but the darkness prevented my seeing 
any wood or even a mud-hole. I loaded everything into 
the boat. There was about thirty yards of ice between the 
land and the black waters. I shoved my boat across this by 
cutting holes in it for my feet and soon, by short pushes 
and much hard work, broke through the ice near the edge 
and floated out into the clear water. I felt that the hardest 
part was done, although three and one-half miles lay be- 



94 

tween me and home with a night as dark as tar to find it 
in. The snow had ceased and the wind had increased. 
At first the water was quite smooth, the wind was aft and 
helped me along amazingly. I could distinguish the out- 
lines of the mountain-tops and I being familiar with them 
all had no fear of losing my way. As I drew off the land 
my boat began to toss on the waves and the quick puffs of 
wind became stronger, but whenever I turned my head to 
look forward I saw the legs of my deer projecting over the 
gunwales, which gave me a feeling of security. My oars 
were twice their usual size with ice, and the rowlocks be- 
ing icy also, allowed them to slip around badly. The waves 
began to make it interesting for me. I could hear them 
coming up behind me and breaking all around. I could 
distinguish the largest of them as they followed the boat by 
the heavy swash as they broke, then as they rolled under 
the stern it would rise in the air, shoot ahead like an arrow 
for a moment, then as the wave came amidship it would 
break and pass on, and the next one take me on its crest 
and carry me a few yards. 

At last I heard the sound of the trampling waves on a 
rock}^ shore and knew it was the narrows which, after 
passing, I should be w^ell protected from the wind. I soon 
passed them and turned off square along the shore, leav- 
ing the breakers to waste their fury out on the rocky point, 
and pulled along the shore almost in sight of the house. 
When some five hundred yards from the landing my boat 
struck with considerable violence against something solid, 
and I soon discovered that the whole cove was frozen over. 
I did not wait for it to thaw out, but went ashore at the 
nearest land, which was a field, and drew out my boat onto 
the ice and placing everything but six mink which I had 
on the ground, turned it bottom up over it and with the 
mink in one hand and a piece of the deer's tail and gun in 



95 

the other, I made my way to the house. When I entered 
the lights were out, but the fire was burning and it was 
eleven o'clock. Mother had given up waiting for me, 
thinking I had either camped or drowned before that time. 
I remember how I swept baked beans and brown bread in- 
to eternity that night. The deer I brought home weighed, 
after being dressed, without the head, hide or feet, 195 
pounds, which is very large for a doe, although I should 
not been surprised or known the difference had she weighed 
400 at that time. 

Camp Caribou, Tuesday, Dec. 30TH. 

Clear and cold this morning. We abandoned the idea 
of hunting to-day, it being such a good day to take 
pictures. Mr. Wells and I went out on the lake and took 
five views in the forenoon and developed them, found them 
all right. Went down to the dam after dinner and took 
some views there. I met three men on the log landing, one 
of them one of my townsmen. They were just beginning 
to land timber down there. The sun clouded in after din- 
ner which hurt our business, we got good pictures 
though. The rest of the party came back from Black 
Pond. They had had good luck. Killed two more deer 
since Mr. Wells and I came out. Everybody was in good 
spirits to-night. Horace Frost and Willie Bragg stopped 
here to-night. I went to bed early to-night. Heard Dan- 
forth telling stories every time I was awake till after mid- 
night. 

Camp Caribou, Wednesday, Dec. 31ST. 

Clear and cold. We used up most of the day taking a 
few pictures and packing up for the departure to-morrow 
morning. Jim Bragg came with a four-horse team to take 
out the party. Danforth and John Olson are going too. 



96 

Alec and I will have the whole country' to ourselves. It 
will be a little lonesome for a few days, I expect, but for 
me I shall be all right after a few days. I am always con- 
tent after a few days, whether I am alone or not. I can 
stand it alone longer than I can with company, unless it is 
the right kind. Company in the back woods sort is quite 
hard to find. There is liable to be a sort of mutiny in 
camp where there is only two or three men working hard 
and in partnership. It takes quite a lot of experience to be 
able to get along in the woods with a companion or two 
and have everything go all smooth. Sportsmen who come 
into the woods on a vacation who alwaj'S get along well 
enough anywhere else together, will often quarrel. Black- 
guarding is very dangerous business, and often brings up 
hard feelings, especially when there is no third person 
present. Jokes will certainly grow old after a few daj^s if 
there is only two in the party and should not be used to 
any ver}'^ great extent after they begin to meet with a cold 
reception. Some men can talk all the evening night after 
night without saying the same thing twice, and yet be 
agreeable. Such is John Danforth, but with me there is 
the same as with many others — times when I simply have 
nothing to say for a whole da}' and dislike to be spoken to 
except on matters of necessity. I once camped with a fel- 
low that always felt grouty in the morning and much in- 
clined to grumble at everything, but in the evening he was 
jolly and as good natured a fellow as one could ask for. I 
soon learned to let him alone when he was in the sulks. 

A ver5' important thing to have camp life go smooth is to 
have a place for everj'thing and keepnt there. Of course, 
there is not so many things in a camp as there is in a work- 
shop to keep in place, but that makes it the more neces- 
sary to have them where they can be found. The first 
thing to be done in the morning is to make up the bed and 



97 

(hen roll it up, beginning at the foot, then the blankets are 
all straight, and when they are unrolled at night the bed is 
all ready to crawl into. If any one prefers not to wash the 
dishes they should be careful not to make it necessary , as 
a plate well wiped out with a knife or piece of bread and 
turned over is good enough for a hunter. Another thing I 
have often noticed in cooking in an ordinary hunter, and 
that is an attempt to have things as a woman has them at 
home — something that they have not the material to pro- 
duce and will come out a failure if tried. The best way to 
cook is to cook just what you have the material for and 
krow how to use, and have plenty of it and when the meal 
is finished to take care of what is left and have it fresh and 
none the worse for age when another meal comes around. 

There is many different ways to cook meat that will 
make it palatable all winter, by changing from one way to 
another. Steak may be broiled, fried or baked, and will 
be much more tender and easily digested if left rare, 
while the ribs and other bones which, for me, are the best 
part of a deer, can be boiled down to a very rich stew with- 
out potatoes, onions or thickening the broth with flour. 
Bread that has been a little dry makes the best thickening 
for a stew, and dumplings are very good sometimes if not 
boiled long after they are done. 

It is very natural for anyone to be shiftless around camp, 
letting "some one else do it," but such a person will 
never succeed very well on account of losing so much time 
waiting for some one else to get starved or froze out. I can 
camp out alone with less than half the wood required to 
keep two persons warm and yet be much warmer than 
when with a companion and plenty of wood. When alone 
I lay very close to the fire, which is a long one, and I laj- 
side to it. There is very little camping in the open air at 
Parmachenee, consequently I prefer a companion. Before 



98 

I came to this country I used to go mostly in a canoe, and 
could therefore carry any amount of camping utensils, but 
always slept under a rubber blanket or my canoe, which 
made a ver}^ good shelter. 

The most dangerous things to encounter when away in 
the woods is the axe and rifle. The axe I consider far the 
most dangerous of the two, on account of the chances of it 
only crippling a man, while a rifle is more apt to kill him 
outright. There is no way to handle a gun safely but to 
carry and handle it in a way to keep the muzzle always 
pointing upwards. How often I have seen men who prided 
themselves in the careful handling of their arms, on seeing 
game, cock their gun and swing it around pointing off" on a 
level, and even forget it was cocked, and later discharge it 
by hitting the trigger. I once had some fine shot fired 
through my boot in this way, and at another time had a 
pistol discharged burning a hole through my coat and shirt ; 
the bullet had fallen out, in the fellow's pocket or else I 
.should have got that. I think he was more frightened than I 
was, because I knew at once that I was not shot, but he 
would not believe it till he saw my skin was whole. How- 
ever, I don't want to repeat the experience, and any body 
seeing a companion handling a gun in a careless manner, 
should call his attention to it. 

The usual load for an ordinary man to carry on his 
back through the woods, is fifty pounds, although this is 
often run up as high as seventy-five or eighty, and even 
one hundred pounds. My heaviest load for a long carrj' is 
ninety pounds, and I do n't want anj' more of it. I can 
lug more in the cool woods than I can through burned 
lands or on a lake or river. I believe the easiest way to 
get along with a heavy pack is to stop ever}^ time it begins 
to pain 3-ou to any great extent and let it rest on a log or 
rock, for not over one minute and then go on at a rapid 



99 

gait. I never had any trouble among the guides of Par- 
machenee on account of having more than my share of the 
load. The only chance for a quarrel is with some fellow 
who insists on carrying some heavy article all the time. 
It is the same in camping out, they all want to use the axe 
and cut all the wood, and if any one has got to sleep 
outside, or there is a deficiency of blankets, they are in 
trouble about who will take the best place. 

Sometimes in going out or coming in with parties there 
will be other guides from the Rangley lakes mixed in with 
us, and I hav^e seen an uncommonly good feeling fellow 
trying to run by a boat on a narrow place in the stream when 
the boat in front of him was in trouble. He can do so if he 
likes, but he at once gets on the bad side of the other 
guides, and must watch out sharp that he do n't get too 
much load or get in trouble. 

A life in the woods is ver}- irregular regarding work, 
eating, sleeping and the luck in hunting and trapping. 
The work is accompanied with some and very frequently 
severe hardships. Our meals are usuall}^ t\Vo square ones 
in a day, but our dinner may be all right, it may be a light, 
cold lunch or none at all. Sleeping is often interrupted by 
Jack Frost, or the heat from a log that has rolled down off 
the fire. And if au}^ one has real bad luck he may hunt 
and trap in vain for six months. But on the other hand 
there is plentj- of game and fur bearing animals moving 
around in the forest and streams and he is liable to see any 
of them at anytime. It costs nothing to keep a silent 
mouth and a sharp eye, and those two things will be the 
cause of killing much game if always made use of. 

As far as pleasure goes there is pleasure enough to climb 
the moss-covered, trackless mountains to their top and look 
away across valleys and ridges to some range of rugged 
giants in the distance, and note the many sparkling lakes 



lOO 

and streams that can be seen glittering in the sun, far below 
or go threading your way through the trees seeing the 
squirrels dart up the trees and perch on a projecting limb, 
or stand in silence as you watch a flock of partridges as 
the}' scratch in the leaves, and cast a mj'sterious glance at 
you now and then, as if in fear you might be an enemy 
of some sort. Then as one sees a deer, a rare specimen of 
a buck, or a doe and her fawns, he can't help observing 
that there could be no other animal that would add the 
grace to the woods, the down trees or the meadow, or 
wherever he chances to see them, as these beautiful crea- 
tures do. Their every motion, color and air seems to show 
that they are in their most natural elements, and that the 
woods was made for them and they for the woods. 

There is a pleasure in sitting on a boulder at the edge of 
a foaming waterfall and watch the spray as it dashes along 
down the rugged passage, seeming to be in some mad haste 
to reach the ocean, and when your ears have become ac- 
customed to the heavy roar to turn away and continue your 
march, the woCds seem ten times as quiet as before, and 
you feel almost afraid of your own footsteps, so startling 
loud do they sound. 

But the happiest moments of my life has been spent be- 
tween dark and bed-time when, after a hard day's work 
and a fair day's hunt, I lay alongside of a crackling fire 
with a roll of blankets under my head and a shelter over 
head sufficient to keep off the heavy frost or snow, as it 
might be, and watch the flames as they dance above the 
blushing embers and send the sparks ziz-zaging away up 
among the branches some twenty or thirty feet, each sepa- 
rate spark seeming to leave a streak of fire behind it a foot 
long. All sorts of objects can be imagined in the coals as 
they drop to the ground under the fore-stick. The light 
penetrates the trees for a few paces around, beyond that all 



lOI 

is black as ink, and the hooting of the owls can be heard 
on the distant hills as they call one to another. A gentle 
murmur is heard among the trees ; it is the night wind ris- 
ing, then the flames of my camp-fire wave slightly and the 
embers grow redder and throw out more heat. I turn over 
with my back to the fire, which has grown slightly chilly. 
Soon the heat is felt and I can distinguish by the sound of 
the fire that it needs replenishing. 

I get up and standing on two sticks of fire-wood to keep 
my feet off the damp, cold ground, pile on more wood, 
which is quickly wrapt in a sheet of flames as the bark 
takes fire. I fall prone on my face in the back side of the 
camp fartherest from the fire and wait till the bark has 
burned, it is gone in a moment. I rise up, unroll my 
blankets and first looking to my moccasins and knapsack, 
to see that everything is at proper distance from the fire — 
my eyes rest thoughtfully a moment on the latter — a moment 
more and I grasp and place it under one end of my blanket 
for heading. My rifle is laid carefully over on the back side 
of my shelter, and laying down on the edge of my blanket 
nearest the fire, I fold the other over me and begin, as I 
lay with my face upward, to count the sparks that reach 
the height of a birch limb that can be dimly seen some 
fifty or sixty feet up. How steadily I watch each big one 
as it sails up past the hundreds of smaller ones that burn 
themselves up before half reaching the limb. I lay here 
thus occupied for some moments, but soon nature begins 
her work and I no longer notice the sparks. I lay for a 
moment with eyes closed, then roll over back to the fire, 
draw up my legs, throw the blankets over my head and 
move around till I have taken the form of the letter S, and 
here I will sleep till October 15th, 1891. 



A 



